Artist Wednesday: Rosalyn Drexler

Rosalyn Drexler is a sculptor, collage artist, playwright and a novelist that became an influential female Pop Artist. As early as 1960, she was using pop culture icons such as gangster movies, pulp detective novels, King Kong and Marilyn Monroe in her compositions.

Artist Wednesday: Alice Neel

Alice Neel is known for her oil on canvas portraits of friends, family, lovers, poets, artists and strangers. Her paintings are notable for their expressionistic use of line and color, psychological acumen, and emotional intensity.

Artist Wednesday: Bruce Davidson

Bruce Davidson is an American photographer that portrayed street life in New York City, capturing the society and culture of the day. Davidson portrays powerful emotion, focusing on the mist of people within their lives. In 1959, he became an observer of street gangs in Brooklyn, New York and documented a gang called the Jokers.

My focus has always been towards the mind and emotions of a person; their psychological state fuels my questions about identity, internal conflict, and vulnerability. Raw emotion is powerful and my portraits look at the internal struggle between the feeling and the person. I communicate tone and emotion; expressionism, rather than a place or setting. My color choices are vibrant and activate a burning that emerge from the darkness. Skin is formed through the application of color and layering of shades through short brush strokes. Lightly through the darkness are lines, surfacing outlines of hair or clothing. Each face has a different bruise imprinted, a different struggle, all with a same understanding of hurt and an underlining strength. Empathy and curiosity are formed for these characters and soon the viewer forms their own story of struggle, as an emotional connection is formed. These emotions are personal struggles and as a viewer we are looking into a window as an intrusive third party. Strenuous problems and difficulties are apparent within our lives, for which cause intensities and vulnerable moments without choice.

Portraiture has developed throughout art history and has produced artistic inspirations for future generations. Chuck Close has been a reference for my portraiture and has continued to develop different methods throughout his career. His realistic proportions and color content has inspired my art work as well as his "hands on approach" methods. His artistic style emphasizes photorealism, while mine is more painterly and expressionistic. My portraits focus on subjects with a high contrast and a variety of tones and values. I have developed different color distributions over time, that have progressed into advanced layering techniques. Contemporary art continues to evolve and redefine itself, as well as examining personal identity. My portraiture focuses on the internal struggle and emotional representation of one self, while discovering new identities in each subject matter.

Each painting within the series emphasizes a vulnerable perspective, private moments that one reveals to themselves. I view vulnerability as being exposed and showing the capable of being physically or emotionally wounded. Self emotion may be hard to be truthful about, pride and confusion plays a role and most situations build up into an internal struggle. Internal struggles are a fight within one self, uncertain of the future choices or obstacles that may come next. These struggles become a dark consumption people feel, as it can eat away at a person's emotional stability. The blackness in my paintings represents this darkness as well as the uneasy brush strokes. These dark black areas are in contrast to the skin tones in which the colors move across the face.

My color palette embodies warm colors on the surface with many other colors used to create a burning foreground. Short, thick brush strokes are used to capture the essence of the subject, mainly within each skin tone. Layering of color creates texture and roundness to each face, as more color comes through the exterior surface. The facial features are loose but defined, and truly capture the emotional state of each portrait. The nose creates a strong focal point as it is more structured and detailed then any other facial feature on the face. The eyes provide direction as to where the portrait is looking and whether or not concentration is apparent. The lips show disbelief, a controlled shock that sinks into the face. The anguish of life drains from each portrait and an intensity is shown. All these elements create a raw emotional state, one that is shown throughout my thesis development.

Perspective is a key component throughout the series. Each portrait is cropped to view the face and just below the shoulder blades. This provides the face to become the focal point and the body language to be an added element towards the emotional mood of the painting. Each portrait is looking away from the viewer, engulfed in their own world and state of mind. These moments are personal yet exposed for each viewer to see and interpret for themselves. A mood and tone is communicated for the viewer, as an emotional connection and empathy is made for each portrait within the series.

some art..

Artist Wednesday: Pae White

I saw her tapestry at the Whitney Museum as well and it was unbelievable. Her work is showcased on the 3rd floor, right in front of the elevators and it's amazing. I was in awe when I stepped off the elevator, it takes over the whole wall and the detail is incredible.