easelyart

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Check out this interview with Easely artist Jonathan Eckel, along with commentary on his work from the director of the Dolan Maxwell Gallery, Ron Rumford. For more of Jonathan's work, check out our site here goo.gl/XCQFL5

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Alessandra Sulpy is a Pittsburgh native and one of our esteemed art contributors here at Easely. Starting at the 1:07 mark, Alessandra gives a brief summary of her professional history and some insight into her creative process. Enjoy!

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Check out this two-handed painting demonstration by local Pittsburgh artist Tom Mosser. Tom is the creator of "A Golden Retriever at the Museum" which has become somewhat of an internet sensation.

In this video, Tom is working on a follow up to that piece and refers to his technique as " Ambidextrous Impressionism". Tune in and get some insight to his skill set and thinking.

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Artist Talk: Elise Dodeles

SAN FRANCISCO AREA FIGHTER A885 by Elise Dodeles, find the original here.

1. What inspired you to create this piece?

I used as inspiration an album of 1½  x 2½ inch photos of mostly anonymous San Francisco area (Olympic Club) fighters taken during the years 1910-1930, which I found in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department of Princeton University.

At the time that I found the photo album, I wanted to stop forcing content into my work and was searching for imagery strong enough to allow me to concentrate on the act of painting itself to provide the content. The beauty of these men's faces, with their lives etched upon them, was the perfect vehicle for me to accomplish my goal of letting my painting technique echo the content that already existed. With these portrait paintings I am determined to continue to express what unites each of us: that is, to highlight and make tangible our human vulnerability when faced with life's sufferings and despair, and occasionally, its triumphs.

2. Can you tell me about the creation process that went into it?

I had been reading a book about Cezanne; his placement of one color next to the other, carefully considering each. I applied my colors in that fashion. Prior to this painting, I had stressed an emotional, quick, and aggressive use of brushwork and palette knife. With this painting I slowed down the process, though still was able to keep the emotion, which is essential to me, and my work.

3. What’s one or two interesting things you think we ought to know about this piece?

It was my first attempt at a profile portrait.

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Artist Talk: Alessandra Sulpy

Slipcover by Alessandra Sulpy, find the original here.

1. What inspired you to create this piece?

'Slipcover' is part of a larger series I'm working on called "Store Facades," which was inspired by the now defunct and abandoned downtowns of some of the Pittsburgh suburbs. I'm interested in showing these places with a bit more vim and vigor to the rack and ruin.

2. Can you tell me about the creation process that went into it?

I'm painting with mixed media, such as oil over acrylic, with collaged elements and faux gold leaf. I love to vary my materials between paintings, using whatever the piece calls for. In this painting, the fluorescent paint and faux gold leaf will both tarnish and fade over (a long) time, alluding to the deterioration of the abandoned steel and aluminum towns I'm inspired by.

3. What’s one or two interesting things you think we ought to know about this piece?

'Slipcover' is a pastiche of familiar buildings, photo references, and imagination. Look closely and you'll notice the stores are boarded; the shoppers barred or out of reach; the mannequins have become freed and are now blurring the lines between new shoppers and merchandise. 

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Artist Talk: Matthew Burrows

Just Another One Of Our Golden Girls by Matthew Burrows, find the original here.

1. What inspired you to create this piece?

When I am not creating a work I spend my time constantly researching the topics that interest me. I do a lot of reading on topics such as climate change and environmentalism, as well as technological innovation and globalization. I research cultures and trends and how they are affected by the ever changing fast paced world we live in. I had been wanting to make a large work about environmentalism and how technology and globalization has affected the natural world and humans. This piece was inspired by a single idea that we are losing touch with our connection to the natural world, as if we are something separate from it. So the work aims to connect many subjects around that idea to create an open-ended narrative about the subject matters for

people to visually explore. 

2. Can you tell me about the creation process that went into it?

In regards to the process, as I said, a lot of research is the first step. Exploring information leads to ideas for imagery. Then, acquiring imagery leads to a loose idea of the piece, which is never all planned from the start. I start in one corner and let the work evolve as I piece ideas and my own social commentary together. There is some pencil sketching first, then the finalizing of imagery with ink and finally the color.

3. What’s one or two interesting things you think we ought to know about this piece?

The large human/robot with the drill on the bottom left side of the piece represents the industries that plunder our environment without a care. Profit is the only goal, and the consequences are left out of their thought. But it is also about the workers, who carry out the work and how they are mentally affected by it. The wolf biting his shoulder is a prediction that nature will fight back. We are silly to presume it is unaware of how we are changing it.

Second, if you look in the top left corner you see a person wearing a orange and blue hat with a mask on their face, intertwined with a cargo plane taking off. That is me. I rarely include myself in my work but I felt appropriate in this piece. It represents my desire to travel to places where the ideas behind this place are unfolding and perhaps acquire vast amount of research for new work as well as raise social awareness behind the issues involved.

One more interesting fact is that, including research and actual work time, this piece took approximately 7 months to complete. It was the largest and most complicated artistic undertaking I have taken on to date.

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Artist Talk: Tim McFarlane

Dd91212.2 by Tim McFarlane, find the original here.

1. What inspired you to create this piece?

I was inspired to create this piece because I wanted to make a digital work that had elements of some of my paintings, but also unique in composition and use of color. I was also interested in creating work that wasn't bound by a physical presence and existed independently of my other work.

2. Can you tell me about the creation process that went into it?

This piece was created with the help of Photoshop. I used several layers of information and kept changing the order of the layers until  I arrived at the present image.

3. What’s one or two interesting things you think we ought to know about this piece?

The colors used on this piece are very different from the color combinations that I use in my other artwork; a lot of the colors here are much more saturated. 

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Artist Talk: Aniqa Fatima

Transcendence by Aniqa Fatima, find the original here.

1. What inspired you to create this piece?

My inspiration are from Sufi thoughts to understand being through intuition, meditation and knowledge based upon the subject of being and knowing. My idea is to make the work which stimulates thinking.

2. Can you tell me about the creation process that went into it?

In the painting, I have used the shadows of different objects at different times of sunlight. Forms that inspire me that are outside of material concern. 

3. What’s one or two interesting things you think we ought to know about this piece?

My idea in this painting is... rise your thoughts or transcend yourself from the aspect of material. Think beyond matter.

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Artist Talk: Carolyn Reed Barritt

Cherry Bomb by Carolyn Reed Barritt, find the original here.

1. What inspired you to create this piece?

When I was working on Cherry Bomb I was thinking about the many meanings of the color red: passion, luck, danger, warmth, fire, anger etc., about dichotomy in general and about the myth of the phoenix. 

  2. Can you tell me about the creation process that went into it?

My artwork is a combination of drawing and painting in ink using dip pens and brushes. For Cherry Bomb, I used both standard and pearlescent inks on paper.

  3. What's one or two interesting things you think we ought to know about this piece?

In my mind the painting tells a story, or myth, of falling and exploding flowers which start an inferno that results in the emergence of a flock of dark birds. The pearlescent blue marks, painted over all the other colors and shapes represent the coolness of reason, rain and sky, to the contrasting red, orange, and black of fire, confusion and chaos.