Relaxation At A Pond
Stanislav “Standa” Riha
Visual artist, photographer, and writer
Member of CARFAC
Born in 1952 in Prague, former Czechoslovakia. He grew up in Lesser Town (Malá Strana), surrounded by great medieval and modern art and artists that caused his desire to create. From early childhood, he enjoyed drawing and later painting; as a young man, he focused mainly on surrealism. His artistic attitude was shaped by many art courses in childhood, followed by art training by MgA Milos Saska and work in set production of the Realistic Theatre.
In 1980, he lived for a year in Grinzing, Vienna, Austria, and then moved to Vancouver, BC, Canada. Enchanted with the natural beauty of British Columbia, he dedicated the first few years to realistic nature themes and then switched to Surreal and later Surreal-abstract creative work.
In the last three decades, I have been creating wall-mounted, cast resin, and aluminum sculptures combined with canvas and gold leaf and exploring the computer as an art tool for creating digital artwork.
All my life, I have loved to create art full of emotions and feelings, “soul,” with the satisfaction of fun. I am interested in the balance and composition of colors and objects rather than the reality of the items.
The direction of the last two decades has been aimed at understanding and, through artwork, expressing the human struggle of emotions and adaptations. For the past ten years, I have been polishing my creative work in the Surreal-abstract style.
The main motto of my artwork is: Just as in a good story, the readers have space to create their image; in a good picture, the viewers can form their account.
Release 2
Dorothea Ney’s abstract paintings present themselves as a playful symphony of colors. Thanks to her travels and different living conditions she has learned to blend the different experiences into her own abstract expressionist style. Light flows and moves through shifting pastel color fields over the canvas, and boundaries of form are dissolved. Dorothea Ney’s imaginary places enwrap the viewer in a harmonious impression of peace and beauty.
BA Academy of Fine Arts, Bremen, DE
Several works in private and corporate collections in Germany, Austria, Estonia, the US
Lived and worked as a visual artist in Berlin, DE – Installation-Performance-Sculpture –
Grant of Stiftung Kulturfonds, Berlin, DE
Grant of the Cultural Senate of Berlin, DE
Artist in residence Castle of Wiepersdorf, Brandenburg, DE
Moved to NM in 2000/ garden business until 2021
Works as an expressionist painter in NM
As an expressionist painter, I work with acrylics, oil colors, cold wax, and crayons on canvas or wood panels, and like to explore one theme in groups of paintings.
My current paintings weave together the softer colors and light from my home in Germany with the wilder, bolder colors and the intense light in NM where I live now.
Both opposites feed into my works creating imaginary landscapes of my soul. I translate the beauty and energetics of the natural world into an abstract composition of color and movement.
In my paintings, I translate the beauty and the energetics of the natural world into an abstract expression of light, color, and movement.
Relentless Courage
Arlette Stella is an abstract painter with occasional work that expresses surrealism. Her work is characterized by bold colors since she is mainly color-blind and needs bold colors to see the work. Arlette’s philosophical nature is the basis for her work. Every work is the result of a conversation she has had with canvas, paints, and colors. She is self-taught, late-blooming, and unstoppable.
Arlette Stella works predominately in acrylic paint. Because of the open nature, she is always exploring, she also experiments with gouache, acrylic ink, molding pastes, and water. Painting is, for Arlette, an exploration into the possibilities and depths of thought and feeling.
Each work aims to incur, inspire, and maybe even nudge (kick you in the yeah-butt!) the viewer to experience and act on kindness. Arlette states clearly: Kindness is my brand! Arlette Stella is an artist member of the San Diego Artist Guild of the San Diego Museum and the Artist Guild of Palm Springs/Palm Desert, among other groups.
Abstract. Philosophical. Colorful.
I am self-taught and late blooming, as they say. That means I pretty much found the need to express this way deep inside. Once found, it would/could not stay quiet. Sometimes it even screams to express. I am unstoppable.
The colors, brushes, and surfaces guide and sometimes demand my attention. I have been held hostage, enticed, and called to share what is. Sometimes I argue with the canvas/work so we don’t speak for days. There have been times when I make a ‘mistake’ and am guided/pushed to use it. Those are fun! It helps that I am partially color blind because then I demand more of the colors. It helps that I know nothing about art because then I have no self-judgment. It helps that I surrender to the experience because then I can be the conduit, as it should be.
You will find benefits in viewing this work.
Reluctantly Listening
Initially, as a student of art and music, my professional creative interests moved into the field of technology. After majoring in music at NTSU (currently known as UNT), I went on to write business software in the 1980s and continued software development into the 21st Century. With the introduction of the internet, web design brought a whole new canvas to explore. Web applications were born, and with it, creative design invaded the conventional business software development model. Graphic design became an integral component of creating compelling web applications. I started using photography and art as mediums for designing interactive web-based business solutions. After retiring from software design, I have come full circle. I have returned to exploring creativity by combining photography, pen and ink, watercolor, and other art forms to make unique visual art.
I attempt to paint portraits that represent the uniqueness and beauty of each person I paint. Every person has their own unique form of aesthetic appeal. I have had the privilege of capturing photos of those who came to serve or to be served at Taste Community Restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, a place in our Southside community where it doesn’t matter what your place in life is. The restaurant is a pay-what-you-can non-profit whose customers represent a rich diversity of people who gather for a great meal. Right now, the restaurant serves as my art gallery. Just a few of my paintings are displayed in the back of the restaurant, where many people can view them. Sometimes, they might be surprised to see themselves in the portraits. The proceeds from the gallery’s sales go to support the organization. For me, this is the best gallery I could ever hope for to exhibit my art.
Remember Me
Carmen Cecilia Rusu is an artist born in Dej and has recently established herself in the field through numerous painting exhibitions in which she has actively participated. Since 2014, the artist has rekindled her childhood passion, namely painting, and has, to date, taken part in 46 national exhibitions and 168 international exhibitions spanning Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Portugal, Spain, Germany, England, Switzerland, France, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, and the U.S.A. Furthermore, she has held four personal exhibitions in Florence, Italy, and Turda, Cluj, Romania.
Throughout her exhibitions, Carmen Cecilia Rusu consistently introduces new works and fresh perspectives. Each time, she presents a different theme and stylistic approach, yet there exists a common thread that unites all her artworks. Whether through her unique approach to texture and painterly materials or her ability to infuse images with a certain compelling force, she strives to translate subjects into a pictorial language and convey the energy inherent in the materials.
To gain a deeper understanding of her artistic world, one can consider the following statement regarding her work: “Indeed, her works are atypical, and I believe her success can be attributed to the absolutely original and unmistakable style, characterized by the interplay of colors, where one hue is based on another—a chromatic tandem rich in symbolism.” – Felicia Racean
Through painting I see beyond the limits of the existential, I see everything. I discover mysteries and create new ones. The presence of the mystery and the need to elucidate it causes the viewer to travel in the universe created by me and made available to those who have the desire to escape from it. That means ART!
Remember?
Inez Sieben is a visual artist whose work is vibrant and colorful. Her work tells a story, makes a point, captures a feeling, and is often infused with humor. It is also deeply influenced by the multiple cultures in which she was raised, including countries in South America, Europe, and the Far East.
She mostly works with acrylic and gouache paints, but her work frequently incorporates mixed media, using scraps of wood, images from catalogues, fabric fragments, and other found items.
She studied art as a young adult in Strasbourg, France, but is mostly self-taught. Currently, she studies under Eleanor Grace Miller. She has had solo and group exhibits in France, New York City, and Westchester County.
What I see, hear, feel, and experience makes its way into my art. Growing up in multiple cultures influences my work, and my love of fairy tales, fiction, fantasy, and sci-fi seeps through as well.
I paint mostly in acrylics and gouache and love to experiment with a variety of techniques and materials. As I work, I am often inspired by new images, so I find myself working on several paintings at the same time or creating a series. At times, my work is autobiographical or a personal experience that touches me deeply, as I aim to tell a story, convey a feeling, or share memories, as in “Remember?”
Through the use of vibrant colors, a sense of movement, and unexpected imagery, I hope the viewer is drawn into my work in a way that provides space for their own interpretation and lived experience.
Renewed Beginnings
Michelle Lawson is a contemporary, International award-winning artist, residing in the Greater Newcastle region of Australia. Although she loved art when she was at school, Michelle spent 3 decades following a different career path as a finance and management professional across numerous global mining companies and top-tier chartered accounting firms. However, after some life-changing family health issues, she decided to semi-retire in early 2021 and now finds work/life balance through creating her artwork and serving on Boards. With a passion for acrylics, textures, mixed media, and abstract, her work is energetic, calming, and whimsical.
My artwork epitomizes my vision of a joyful and balanced lifestyle. Intuitively painting with no expectations, apart from a pre-selected color palette, I welcome the uncertainty with brush strokes, multiple layers, textures, and sometimes additional mixed media that purely feel right. The final layers are the most fun with my signature ink markings or posca pen details.
Repetition Of The Phenomenon
Jeong-Ah Zhang is a contemporary artist specializing in painting and works from Seoul Korea, where she was born and raised.
Jeong-Ah Zhang, Painter, Photographer, and mixed-media artist pushes us to the edge of our own undress ourselves and the world for more meaning than the surface deep. And her surrealist paintings connect us to a world that exists inside-out and outside-in of our consciousness.
She majored in fine arts at Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul Korea. 4 Selected solo exhibitions in the United States and Korea, and more than 60 group exhibitions and art fairs in the United States, Korea, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and the United Kingdom. It also won 23 international awards and won 15 awards in Korea.
My life is itself what I experience and it is evidence of my life.
The oriental Buddhist philosophy that all things work mysteriously without an actual substance is the basis of my work, but I am not a religious person. My life and art are based on my own philosophical thoughts and experiences. I am interested in the philosophy of reflections on all beings. My works use symbols, metaphors, and imagery in the metaphysical world to express phenomena such as the nature of life, or the principle of the universe.
The universe repeats the cycle of creation and extinction. And I think that the universe is the consciousness, unconsciousness, the borderland of consciousness, the five senses, awareness, and then a subconscious state of mind. Therefore, I try to listen to all the conceptions of all things, have an open mind, and remember what resonates, and I work like that. It’s a soul resonance, beyond the time frame. Basically, this means that I try to focus on the essence of life by establishing core values, and at the same time, I am trying to sublimate them into my works. Philosophical considerations on a visible world and an invisible world.
Requiem
Melissa Allegories was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, with ancestry in the Dominican Republic. In 2011, she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from Florida Atlantic University, where she developed her distinctive artistic style while concentrating on drawing, painting, and printmaking. Melissa’s artwork is a mixture of creative writing with allegorical representations. Her artistic style has been subconsciously influenced by and developed out of boundless ideas, drawn forth from American culture, universal themes, and an openness to foreign ideology. Her pieces are composed by combining figurative or representational imagery, varying line weight, and quality to imply space and movement using non-linear perspective, integrating overlapping imagery, and using organic and geometric shapes. She exercises a push-and-pull technique and focuses on ethical insights, patterns in nature, and harmony with all things.
I am an indirect functional, Artist-Philosopher and Visual Writer creating a fictitious world to advocate secular virtues, thus revealing simple truths. You can think of me as a 21st-century symbolist aiming to provoke thought, curiosity, and inquisitiveness through constructing allegorical depictions.
I am interested in intricate and subtle details, as I take pleasure in creating a stylized form of symbolist art. I rework and implement new concepts by combining representational imagery, varying line weight, and quality to imply space and movement, overlapping and superimposed imagery, applying harmonious and/or contrasting colors, and using organic and geometric shapes. The framework of each composition is a derivative of interconnected ideas that I express allegorically with originality and socio-cultural influences. I focus on ethics, harmony, and nature and utilize a push-and-pull technique.
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, with ancestry in the Dominican Republic. I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from Florida Atlantic University concentrating on drawing, painting, and printmaking in 2011; I graduated magna cum laude, with a general GPA of 3.5/ 4.0 and 3.7 in my major. Moreover, as a member of The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS), I aspire to become an influential artist. I hope to inspire other leaders, advocates, and the community at large. My vocation is to create aesthetically pleasing and intellectual works of art and support services that positively impact humanity.