William Ruller Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? By the way, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces — to street and especially to online platforms as Instagram https://www.instagram.com/williamruller —
increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? William Ruller: The audience never really plays that much of a role to me. I enjoy sitting back, watching and listening to people at openings to see what they react to and how Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition
Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW William Ruller
Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition
William Ruller Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW the show feels to them. I always want to make work that effects people in some way either good or bad I believe every creative person wants a reaction. The worst is when people simply dismiss what you’ve done. In the past year with Covid-19 my interaction with the audience has stopped almost completely. As of recent I have taken the idea of social media like Instagram more seriously. But I personally feel like it’s a double-edged sword. I enjoy the fact that I can see work from anywhere in the world and I can stay up to date with what my contemporaries are doing. But the constant barrage of images and the need to get X amount of likes really bothers me. Seeing platforms on Instagram, of which I have taken part of some of them, that you pay for exposure is really an ugly beast. I feel like it brings out aspects of art world that are the worst kind. And for someone like myself that came up in a time when social media was not a thing, it’s a weird thing to try to expand your audience with constantly showing work as it evolves in your studio. It used to be that no one really knew what was going on in your studio until you showed it, now you can see work evolve over time. Which again is really exciting and casts some form of fear in me. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, William. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? William Ruller: I have really enjoyed our conversation also and I want to thank you for including me in this issue. Your questions are very well thought out and made me think a lot about my work, which being alone in the studio, one doesn’t get to do that often. At the moment I am working on a new series of paintings that will be accompanied by a series of 70 pieces of pottery that will hold branches that have been tinted a red ochre that is common in the area of France that I currently live in. It somewhat of a departure for me since I am usually not creating a body of work where both pottery and paintings fully coexist and feed off each other, so I am really excited about it. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Photos by Elise Hamon Ruller
Hello Doro Saharita and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.dorosaharita.com in order to get a wide idea about your mulifaceted artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. Are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your long, adventurous and eventful stays abroad fuel your creative process? Doro Saharita Becker: As you mentioned, my art is beeing strongly influenced by many individual long-term-travels all around the globe. Especially the People from all the different nations and cultures with all their colourful forms of lifestyle, beliefs, loving an welcoming behavior as well as all the different landscapes, the nature and the endless lush green forests. On every travel I soak in the colours of nature, the structure from soil and plants, to bring them back to life on to the canvas at home. Also, If I feel stuck in negative feelings it’s a relief to walk alone off the beaten track through the forest, there I always get back to a positiv mindset. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape has at once impressed us for the way your exploration of the tension between figurative elements with unique abstract sensitiveness. In particular, Centered in the eye of the storm has captured our eyes for the way it highlights the aesthetics of environment unveils the bond with our surroundings: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop the initial ideas for your artworks? In particular, do you create your works intuitivelly, instinctively? Or do you An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Doro Saharita Becker This painting is about keeping calm in every situation, even if you are standing in the middle of the great salar de uyuni in Bolivia watching a huge sandstorm is making its way to you... All you can do is staying focused and watch the storm goes by.
Bruchstück I +III - 150x30cm, mixed media on canvas
Love is - unconditional - 60x90 cm, acrylics & gold leaf on canvas
Elaine Crowe Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW methodically transpose geometric schemes? Doro Saharita Becker: Mostly when I start a painting, I have at least a kind of an idea but as longer I am in the process more and more things are coming. It’s like a journey where you only have a ticket to anywhere but not knowing exactly where you will end up. I just Eucalyptus and the moon - 40x40cm, mixed media & gold leaf on canvas
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition go with the flow and let my mind guide my artistic journey. Sometimes its weird, abstract or fluid, sometimes my deepest feelings of love and passion will pop up in a figurative painting or portrait. The geometric patterns a great new way for me to complete a painting with a certain energie, to make the unseen seen and combine different styles to a new one. I just love it. Tzolkin - 40x40cm, acrylics on canvas
Waldbruch - 90x130cm, mixed media on canvas
Centered in the eye of the storm - 80x100cm, acrylics and gold leaf on canvas
Wüstenbruch - 60x80cm, mixed media on canvas
Doro Saharita Becker scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land As you have remarked once, Centered in the eye of the storm is about keeping calm in every situation, even if you are standing in the middle of the great salar de uyuni in Bolivia watching a huge sandstorm is making its way to you... All you can do is staying focused and watch the storm goes by. Doro Saharita Becker: Exactly. I belief that everything which is happening is there for a reason. You are are at the right place at the right time-always. Theres no need to get in a rush or mess things up, just be still, be patient, ceep calm – until the situation is over and you can see the clear blue sky again and make the best decision. In the end it will be all good, if its not good - it is not the end! We have appreciated the sapient combination between refined sense of geometry and delicate and thoughtful nuances that marks out your artworks, and that in Eucalyptus and the Moon draw the viewers to a state of mind where the concepts of time and space become suspended. How does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide Zärtlichkeitsausbruch 70x100cm, mixed media on himalaya paper on wood Zusammenbruch der welt 70x100cm, mixed media on himalayapaper on wood
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition to include in an artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such unique results? Doro Saharita Becker: Let me answer this question with little explanation about my name – “Doro Saharita” – Doro is my given name and in my signature I write it as “D’oro” which means ‘golden’ Gold is my all time favorite, therefore I try to bring it up on every artwork. Sometimes just a little bit of almost invisible golden sparkle, sometimes a big bright golden bar… Saharita is a combination of the arabic name ‘Sahar’ and the sanscrit name ‘Sarita’ which describes perfectly my devise – to live a positve life by floating towards the sun. Every single artwork is a unique piece of my soul – without the right feeling I don’t start to paint. Therefore I regularly use goldleaf to create a precious, shiny look and the colours of nature to mirror my deep love for mother nature. Layer by layer I try to bring positive thoughts on to the canvas. Aufbruch - 70x100, mixed media on canvas Bruchlinie - 70x100cm, mixed media on canvas
Pure energy - 60x90cm acrylics & goldleaf on canvas
scape Special Edition CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Indigo child - 70x100cm, acrylics on canvas
Elaine Crowe Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW In the special painting “Eucalyptus and the moon” I used real dried eucalyptus leafs covered with goldleaf infront of the magical fullmoon. It’s a pity that a picture will never be able to bring the full texture and the shiny gold to life. I wish you could see it in real. Selfportrait with wolf - 50x50cm, acrylics on canvas
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition We have appreciated your successful attempt to draw the viewers to a state of mind where concepts of space and time becomes suspended. We dare say that your artworks highlight contours of known reality in an unknown world and seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the Floating - 50x50cm acrylics & resin on canvas
spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? Doro Saharita Becker: 3 years ago I Elaine Crowe Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Passionate - 50x50cm acrylics & resin on canvas
Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition participated a truly lifechanging, interdimensional ceremony – which was literally a break through in every inch of my body and soul. I felt the deep connection to everyone and everything and that really changed my art as well. From the belief that I have to do only this or that to be “a real artist” or that I would need to stick at only Grounded - 50x50cm acrylics & resin on canvas
Love is - longing - 60x90cm, acrylics & goldleaf on canvas
Bruchlinie - 70x100cm mixed media on canvas
one genre or only one style to an openminded state of “fuck that shit”! I am here to create whatever I want. That’s it. And I love it. At this time I started to work with the sacred geometry too, and with all that stuff that is beyond our limited thinking and what we barely can´t see. I was and I still am looking to work out a technic where I can combine the inner and outer world. The sacred geometry is a beautiful tool for that. Of course I want my artwork to be seen as open as possible – It is not all about what I see but what you see! You often include unconventional materials, materials such as coffee powder, sand, synthetic resin, to pursue such unique visual and almost tactile aesthetic identity: how important is for you to highlight the fact that your artworks are characterized by remarkable tactile feel? In particular, how do you select the materials to be included in your artworks? Doro Saharita Becker: Theres a really personal idea behind these tactile paintings – my brother is blind due to a rare eye-desease. Until he was 10/11 he could see well and was interessted in all kinds of arts and science and he still is. I was looking for a way to create art wich is not only possible to be seen but also to be touched and feeled, as a fusion of flat paintings and 3d objects. The usual ready mixed structure mediums which you can buy didn’t satisfied my ideas enough so I started to mix my own structure paste with likely unusual things like lime putty, marble dust, sand, coffee, bark, moss… At the beginning it Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition
Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Elaine Crowe Vulkanausbruch 70x100, mixed media on canvas
Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition Riffbruch - 90x130cm, mixed media on canvas
Elaine Crowe Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW was a total trial &error with hours of mixing,testing, spreading, sraping and starting all over again. Now I use my very own technique and mixture to create a thick and stable texture. I try to channel all my thoughts on the canvas and combine it with as much opposites as possible. So in the end my abstract paintings combine soft and hard, rough and fluffy, blunt and shiny….and not only blind people like to touch them ;) You are a versatile artist and your practice encompasses both abstract and figurative subjects. In particular, the subjects of your figurative paintings — as the interesting Jyoti and Liebe ist - bedingungslos — are immersed into such dreamlike atmosphere: how do you consider the relationship between figurative and abstraction, playing within your artistic research? Doro Saharita Becker: I love the combination of mixed materials and mixed art styles as well. Just as life is never black and white, this or that, straight or winded. It rather is a neverending combination of all sorts of stuff. Why should you get stuck with just one part of art? We should be open to all kind of variation of life, mind and art without the limited thinking in boxes. You often work with large canvass, that provide the viewers with such immersive visual experience: how do the dimensions of your canvass affect your workflow?
Doro Saharita Becker: It’s a pleasure to work on large canvasses and spend hours and days on it until it comes finally to an end. Each piece is the result of an inner journey and kind of meditation. It is my break out from the normal life and I love every second working on it. We have appreciated the way you combine reminders to reality — as in the interesting Sunrise and Breaking wave- into the blue— with such unique dreamlike visual qualities. Scottish visual artist Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic works of art are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Doro Saharita Becker: I like Peter Doigs statement! It is both, (my personal) reality and imagination which appear in my paintings. As every painting is also a little escape from reality - from the very first beginning of creating until you look at it at the wall. Also Picasso once said “everything you can imagine is real” that’s it You are an established artist and over the years you participated to a number of exhibitions: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? By the way, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces — to street and especially to Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition
Elaine Crowe Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Tagesanbruch 90x130cm, mixed media on canvas
Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition online platforms as Instagram — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? (if you like you can include the link http://www.instagram.com/doro.saharita to your Instagram page, in your answer) Doro Saharita Becker: I am pretty shy and introvert. So during my exhibitions I like to stay in the backround and watch people looking at my artwork. It is beautiful to observe the reactions, the talks between the people, the desire to touch my textured artworks. Once there was guy standing aproximately 40 minutes infront of my painting “indigo child” He had a really deep connection to this painting. I didn’t wanted to interrupt him by starting a conversation or asking questions or something, it was just magic and the pure pleasure watching this scene. That is what I love most. To see people getting a real connection to my art. I love to make individual and adventureous travels around the globe, which has a huge influence on my personal life and artwork. I see myself as an international human rather than just a “german” so the more international my audience is the more happy I am. Social media like Instagram ( if you would like to visit my account just follow this link: http://www.instagram.com/doro.saharita) is a great way to represent art all over the world. it’s just a pity that pictures never will be able to show the deep texture. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Doro Saharita. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Doro Saharita Becker: Thank you so much, it was a pleasure! Since the 2nd Lockdown occurs due to Covid19 I didn’t have the time and muse to create something. I have two little Girls in fulltime homeschooling so you can imagine that’s hard to find time for myself, just like every other parent at this challenging time. Mothers, I feel you (and fathers,too of course!) But neven this will be over soon – breath in - breath out- repeat I am looking forward with tons of ideas in my head to go back to my studio. Due to limited space in my atelier I cant go bigger than 1x1m,therefore I am looking for a larger workspace right now to create xl-size artpieces. Also I am still exploring new mixtures and structures, stay tuned An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
Elaine Crowe Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Energetic wave 60x90cm acrylics on canvas
Hello Irina and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit http://www.irinaivanova.eu/en in order to get a wide idea about your mulifaceted artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and you graduated with a degree in Fine Art from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Irina Ivanova: Hello, first I want to thank you for the opportunity to show my art in your special edition. The training I received at university and high school was extremely formative for my development as an artist. The basis given to me by my teachers was extremely important to me and certainly has an impact on my work now. The atmosphere of being in the atelier(studio) among colleagues, to see how my works look next to theirs, communication with teachers - these are the things that I miss now while working alone in the studio. The years at my university were a great experience for me. They gave me enthusiasm and inspiration to continue to develop and demand more of myself. The body of works that we have selected The person is born to be an artist and art is a necessity for him. The need to create art has been with me all my life and has manifested itself in various forms. Art is a necessity for me! In my work I imagine sealed moments from my life, from the places where I have lived and everything that has surrounded me. The purpose of my work is to create joyful emotion in people, peace and happiness. One must unload from the hard everyday life when looking at art and creativity to have a positive effect on his senses. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Irina Ivanova Lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria
Irina Ivanova in the studio
scape Special Edition CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land The end of a summer day
Irina Ivanova Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW for this special edition of LandEscape has at once impressed us of for the way it seems to suggest to the viewers that in order to see beauty, we just need to pause a little bit and look around ourselves: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop the initial ideas for your artworks? In particular, do you create your works intuitivelly, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? Irina Ivanova: I agree that in order to see the beauty around us, we just have to stop for a moment and look around. This is exactly what I try to achieve when I create my own works. People are usually so busy, hurried and tense in their daily lives and they do not have a quiet moment to look around and notice the beauty of everything around us. I like to collect experiences from my everyday life and then recreate this emotion on the canvases. Beauty is all around us, everyone sees it from a different prism, some see it while drinking coffee and a cup on the table, this is beauty for them, others see it in the lamp upstairs while walking along the boulevard, others see it simply in space and the atmosphere. You just have to calm down and not think about your hard life, stop and look around, and then you will see that even the things that have seemed ugly to him so far, even they are beautiful and have their own unique charm. I love when I am guided by my intuition and emotion and I think that is felt in my works. I think that sometimes following a certain method like a textbook kills the emotion in a work to some extent. It is good for a person to be guided by certain norms, but they should not bother him too much while creating. We like the way you draw from reality to create works of art marked out with such unique poetic atmospheres, as the interesting The Beach, conveying such a stimulating combination between reminding to ambiguous figurative elements and captivating surrealistic feeling: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination playing within your artistic practice? Irina Ivanova: The connection between reality and imagination in my artistic practice is emotion. I like the brush to be visible in my works, it remains a different texture on the canvas and this affects differently every time. I like to alternate more layered textures with more velatantly applied, because the emotion is different. We have appreciated the thoughtful and delicate nuances that mark out your artworks, and that in The end of a summer draw the viewers to a state of mind where the concepts of time and space seem to be suspended. How does your own psychological make-up determine the
In the studio with the painting "Port of Capetown" participated in the Friends of the Sea Biennale 2020 in Burgas, Bulgaria
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition nuances of tones that you decide to include in an artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such brilliant results? Irina Ivanova: I always portray what I have personally experienced and what the harmony should be - cold, warm or mixed, depends on the emotion of the experience. It comes intuitively, but very often before I start working on a work I imagine it in advance in my mind what it will look like. and I strive for this while working. Regarding my textures, those that are multi-layered are achieved extremely slowly and I need patience for them. While with the thinner layer I can work on prima vista and the emotion comes instantly, in multi-layer painting patience is required for the final result. But in the end the emotion from this multi-layer painting brings a captivating feeling of nuances of the viewer. We definetely love the way you extract such deep emotional sensations from a living room or from a terrace covered with snow, going beyond the surface ofyour subjects: what kind of emotions would you like to convey in your paintings? In particular, how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? Irina Ivanova: In my paintings I want to
Irina Ivanova Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW The Beach (Kavatzi)
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Coffee on the beach
Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land convey warm emotions for a better world. I want to show that even if something seems cold and ugly in our everyday life and we surround it with ease without paying attention and looking for its beauty, even it can have nice side. I am very happy when I managed to convey it to the viewer and he felt the emotion with which I created the works. Of course everyone interprets the paintings differently, everyone sees a part of themselves in the painting they like and connects it with their personal memory. Many of your artworks feature urban places teeming with life: how do you select the locations that you depict in your artworks? Irina Ivanova: I like to depict the places in the cities where I have lived or been on vacation. I love the city and the madhouse in it. I don't have an exact landmark, just when something grabs me I seal it in a picture. The aim is to show the viewer that even a dusty and ugly street can look very different when interpreted correctly. We really appreciate the way your artworks encourage the viewers to capture beauty in ordinary, daily life: in this sense, your approach seems to reflect Edgar Degas' words, when he once remarked that “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." how does your everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research?
Garibaldi square
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Irina Ivanova: I love when I see something different or encounter an unusual type of composition. Then I try to explore these things on the canvas and give the viewer a different interpretation of the landscape and our everyday life. And I am happy when the viewer can see and feel this different Winter day at home
Irina Ivanova Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW side of the landscape. Your landscapes reflect a sense of connection with your surroundings: how do the places you inhabited inspire you? And how do you consider the role of memories in your artistic process? Irina Ivanova: I paint the things I love and Cat at the window
Plovdiv street landscape
scape Special Edition CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Lights on Slaveykov Square