Rose Magee Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Clouds
scape Special Edition CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Clouds
Rose Magee Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Rose Magee: Physical manifestations of emotions are an important part of the symbology in my work, often we find it difficult to express ourselves or it can be difficult to understand someone. The cacti in this series represent the uncomfortable feeling we get when we are forced to stay home. We feel like we need to be constantly proactive and producing but during lockdowns this was often unrealistic. I wanted to portray that soft furnishings don't result in relaxation, being comfortable has to come from our mental state. We have particularly appreciated the way your installation Hanukiah achieves the difficult task of expanding our traditional living space, turning it into a large-scale, panoramic vision that provides the viewers with such an immersive visual experience: how do the dimensions of your artworks affect your workflow? Rose Magee: This was my largest installation to date and adapting to the space was initially intimidating, additionally I wanted to create a non traditional Hanukiah. I am happy with the end result and would definitely work on this scale again. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, the aim of your artistic practice is not to produce a direct translation of reality
Clouds
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition on the canvas but rather an impression of it, pure and ready for interpretation: 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? Rose Magee: Very open, if anything I would like the viewers interpretation to Seashell
be limitless. When working on an artwork I have an initial intention but I really welcome people to give their own narrative to my works. You often include unconventional materials, to pursue such unique tactile identity, as in your interesting I Want To Touch It and Hidden: how important is for you to highlight the fact that your artworks are Rose Magee Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Hanukiah installation
Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition I Want To Touch It
Rose Magee Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW characterized by remarkable tactile feel? Rose Magee: Every piece of my art has its own unique conception. Generally the materials themselves initiate the thought and start the creative process, with I Want to Touch it I fell in love with the reflective quality of the Cds and wanted to create something fluid from them. Hidden uses strips of paper collected from print shops here in Berlin and I wanted to create a piece where the final stage of production in this case paper, cradles the raw material, saplings. It's important to mention that in the past year you have tried to be more conscious of climate change as a subject matter and practising better consumption by using repurposed materials. New York City based photographer and sculptor Zoe Leonard once stated, "the objects that we leave behind hold the marks and the sign of our use: like archeological findings, they reveal so much about us". We’d love to ask you about the qualities of the materials that you include — or that you plan to include — in your artworks: in particular, how important is for you to use found and recycled materials? Rose Magee: Knowing that the materials have a second lease at life, aren't filling landfill sites and possibly serving an educational purpose to children make where I source the materials important to me. In some cases it might be easier to buy brand new materials but in doing so they will lose most of their purpose. I also enjoy the challenge of creating something new from something already existing. In my studies we focused on archaeological objects, materials that served a purpose or things that we associate with passion are of extreme interest to me. I am currently working on a project that involves moulding bird feeders from vinyl records, I love the thickness and quality of the vinyl. I also love the thought that someone collected these and had enjoyable moments with them. I often buy these things from charity shops or second hand places so I enjoy the thought that in a small way my money is helping these small shops stay open. Visual artists from different eras — from Eugène Delacroix, passing through Pablo Picasso, to more recently Fang Lijun and Thomas Hirschhorn — use to communicate more or less explicit messages in their artworks. As an artist particularly passionate about creating space for dialogue around difficult topics such as mental health issues, climate change and antisemitism, do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues that affect our everchanging society? In particular, does your artistic research
respond to a particular cultural moment? Rose Magee: Yes I believe art is a powerful means to address these topics, especially with social media, art has become more accessible without the restrictions of galleries. Visual representations transcend the boundaries of language, in regards to the fact they can often be universally understood. I think I could summarize the aim of my art is tolerance and responsibility. Tolerance for different faiths, the natural world and each other, responsibility for how we act on these topics. Over the years your work has been shown in independent galleries in Malta, Berlin and Montenegro as well as pop up exhibitions in Bonn and London: 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/rosa.magee — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Rose Magee: A couple of years ago I was too shy to show anyone my paintings, after a long time I learned to accept not everyone will like my work and that's actually a good thing. If it was liked by everyone it would lack depth. So although I love feedback and seeing how people react to my work I've lost the need to please, I am extremely critical of my own work and that's the only person’s opinion that I really need to live with. As an artist at the beginning of their career I am financially limited by how much I can travel so I embrace the benefits that are brought about by exhibiting on online platforms. 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, Rose. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Rose Magee: I'm currently working on a bird-feeder project where using vinyl records I mould them into small houselike shapes able to hold bird feed. I am them leaving them around Berlin with a note attached inviting people to take them home and use them. My aim is to encourage the public into looking at waste materials in a different way as well as promoting more interaction with our local nature. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Rose Magee Hidden
Hello Alexey and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.alexeyadoninart.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 background. You have a solid formal training, and after having graduated from the Glebov State Art College in Minsk, you moved from Belarus to Israel, where you are currently settled: how do those formative years at the College help you to develop your technical skills as well as your creativity? Thanks so much for your warm welcome! During the USSR's historical events, in the early 90s, my family and I decided to leave for Israel. Those were hard times. People were afraid for their future. Fortunately, I was always busy with my own art world, which seemed to exist separately from all that turmoil and helped me to go through it. As I always stayed away from any political movements that elaborate into a huge mass of people in one place and with one (often crazy) idea, it allowed me to prioritize acquiring artistic skills. In that respect, studying at the college helped me to develop my artistic skills and gave me a large practical base that I appreciate much till today. Classical education has played an important role in the development of my artistic taste. I Alexey Adonin is a Jerusalem based abstract-surrealist artist. His works have been showcased locally and internationally and are held in private collections around the world. Alexey uses a unique and beautiful technique in which he layers oil paints solely on top of one another to create a mystical, transparent look. Alexey's philosophy stems from the idea that one's reality is made up of what they believe it to be. He uses his art as a platform to express his profound ideas about reality, humanity, and their intertwined behaviors. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Alexey Adonin
scape Special Edition CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Psychedelic Forest, oil on canvas, (39.4x31.5in), 2020
Alexey Adonin Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW love being able to experiment, not to the detriment of basic artistic laws. Intuition is the basis of your artistic practice, and as you remarked in your artist's statement, at the initial stage you approach your work without preconception, allowing spontaneous things to happen at the very first: how do you consider the creative role of randomness and improvisation playing within your approach? Intuition remains the basis of my practice for a long time now. In my recent experiments, I elaborate a neater approach, yet, I don't think I ever gave it up completely. It is mainly because spontaneousness allows me to recognize different states within myself and transforms the most interesting of them onto canvas in real-time. Of course, I like the process of searching itself, too - bringing fleeting thoughts to the light - experimenting and mixing things. I often use sketches in basic forms, without color whatsoever, which allow me more controlled exploration of the canvas. I don't know in what direction it will go. My process is largely-intuitive - a voyage of discovery - this is how I like it. You work with unique palette, often marked out with delicate, sometimes even ethereal nuances, that provides your artworks with such oneiric taste, transposing further figurative elements — as in the interesting Ancient Dreams and Sacred Portal — to the dreamlike dimension. Could you tell us something about your choice of colours? In particular, how did you come up to elaborate the distinguishable transparent look that characterizes your works? The mysterious power of color works on many levels as a sensory activating experience. This is one of the many components that link the viewer to a multidimensional interwoven world that the artist longs to convey. Obviously, every artist has his unique sense of color, which allows him to create his inner world on canvas. It is expressed in subtle nuances that reflect his personality. My work with color is very personal and intimate too. I always create through the prism of my own vision and tell about the world, which I see and deeply feel. To underline that experience, I use a distinctive and beautiful technique: I layer oil paints solely on top of one another to create a mystical, transparent look - tapping into a uniquely symbiotic relationship between color and form. On a philosophical level, an important aspect if your artistic practice concerns the notions of preexisting ideas, knowledge, and beliefs present in mind, something that he is born with rather than something he has learned through experience: when drawing inspiration from your inner world, do you ever happen to re-elaborate memories or references to your daily life? Do you think that the realm of imagination is completely separate from ordinary life, or do you think that ordinary life can influence imagination? I do think there is something that makes every each of us unique. We do not come to this world completely blanked. We have definitely been "programmed" and possessed knowledge and ideas before we took this mortal shape. Sometimes these "notions of preexisting ideas" call us, and then the heart must follow the horizon's
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition point and follow this magnetic pull and drive towards beyond. In my view, it what’s makes us alive and is a constant impetus for our life. We are all humans and our minds are always busy and always re-elaborating something whether we want it or not. I'm not an exception. My mind uses every available information, making my existence on Earth better or what my mind consider it "better." Imagination is a part of the mind and has evolved under external and internal factors. However is only a tool of mind though' it mighty and handily one. Lately, I am increasingly inclined to believe that we are merely observers of the mind's thought processes, but the mind itself is firmly attached to matter. Accordingly, if imagination is a part of the mind, it cannot work separately from reality. So that's it. Your artworks feature such captivating sense of geometry: in particular, spheres are quite recurrent, not only in Existential Spheres, but also in Enigmatic Incarnation and in Prana. Moreover, the way you play around with perspective is really intriguing, and we really appreciate the way it challenges the viewers' perception, reminding us of Giorgio De Chirico's works: would you tell us something about the composition of your artworks? In particular, do spheres play any role on a symbolic and metaphysical level? I've been always obsessed with spheres. There is something in its shape that attracts me - so mysterious and straightforward at the same time. Maybe it because it is a universal shape that symbolizes big things like planets and also very tiny ones like molecules and atoms, to name a few. The
Alexey Adonin Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Existential Spheres, oil on canvas (31.5x39.4in), 2019
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Prana, oil on canvas, 31.5x39.4in,2019
Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land sphere is a perfect shape that gives a spacious feel and helps me create a 3- Dimensional space in my artwork. I follow the natural perspective path with a clear center point in each painting around which every element revolves and impels from. Shapes, lines, and color blocks - everything works together to create a unique atmosphere. The kind that allows you to plunge into non-verbal contemplation by connecting your imagination and critical thinking. Some of the works from your recent Beyond The Consequence Of Time series feature large minimalistic backgrounds — as MamaSubstrata, Man On The Beach and Walking On Yellow — that seem to detach the center of the canvas from the background: would you tell us something about this interesting aspect of your works? As I wanted to make painting more laconic and neater, at some point, I felt the need to rid of minor elements, leaving only the most "precious" ones. I also felt the minimalistic background could have an exciting impact on the composition. This became the main tendentious of some of my recent pieces. At first, I ultimately make the background, and then I construct the center element using the prepared sketch. I am working inside its borders only. There are no other differences from my other work except mentioned above. But I think it may have an opportunity to develop a new direction in my creativity. Your artworks often feature short titles, that often - as in Chernobyl - convey subtle hints while maintaining the element of ambiguity: how do you go about naming your work ? In
Something To Remember oil on canvas, (71.3x99.3cm), 2020
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Enigmatic Incarnation oil on canvas, (100x80cm), 2020
Alexey Adonin Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW particular, is important for you to tell something able to walk the viewers through their visual experience? There is a saying, "Brevity is the soul of wit." It's why I enjoy the short, not too straight titles, especially since some works Winter Garden, oil on canvas, (90x90cm), 2019
scape Special Edition CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land do not provide an obvious interpretation. I think the title aims not just to tell what is going on here but also to express emotions present in the artist's mind while creating. It should arouse healthy curiosity. I'm counting on viewers who have the patience New Age oil on canvas, (90x90cm), 2018
Elaine Crowe Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW and self-discipline to stay attentive and can draw their own conclusions. After all, there are many different ways one could see the same thing. Over the centuries art has been used as a platform — sometimes even as a tool —not Solace In Solitude oil on canvas, (90x90cm) 2018
Egregore oil on canvas, 70x100cm (27.6x39.4in), 2016.
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition only to express ideas, but also to communicate actual messages: do you think that Art could shed new light specific themes, raising greater awareness on topical issues that affect our society? I like to think of art more in terms of philosophy. In my view, these two Objects In A State Of Consciousness oil on canvas, (90x90cm) 2018
concepts are inseparable. They both explore and reflects - that's all art needs to do. We don't have to invent additional art usage; otherwise, it will lose its timelessness and enigma and become a mundane, banally-political message about Alexey Adonin Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Chernobyl, oil on canvas, 90x90cm, 2019
Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition Man On The Beach oil on canvas, (100x80cm), 2021
Alexey Adonin Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW society's issues. Art has the most crucial ability to heal from humanity's most terrible disease - fossilization, callousness. I will say it with a quote from "Stalker" (my all-time favorite Tarkovsky's movie): "When a person is born, he is weak and flexible, and when he dies, he is strong and callous. When a tree grows, it is tender and flexible, and when it is dry and tough, it dies. Callousness and strength are companions of death. Weakness and flexibility - express the freshness of being." You are an established artist: your works have also been acquired by notable private collections worldwide and over your long career you have participated to a number of international exhibitions, including five solos, as your recent retrospective Beyond The Consequence of Time, at the Artios Gallery, New York, USA: 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/otherworldlydr eam — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? My achievements wouldn't be possible without my family and friends, who have supported me all these years in my art research. Thank you all! The feedback of the audience is critical to me. In that regard, online presence allows me to meet various people from various backgrounds. Opinions may be different, but an interest itself in my art always inspires me. I was fortunate to communicate with some of them directly, and one of my favorite thing I was told is that my art touches something subtle in the soul, and the feeling of enjoyment replays and resonates in their mind long after. So, obviously, online platforms are excellent tools for connectivity and publicity. It may sound like a cliché, but you still have to work hard to be noticed - nothing comes easy. It may help if you will keep in mind that your art is unique, and there is no one like you. 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, Alexey. Where do you see your work going in the future? Any new direction you feel you might like to take your art? It's my pleasure. I've really enjoyed answering such interesting questions. Thank you! I've gotten interested in pure surrealistic art lately. So gradually, I started moving away from randomness. I still appreciate my abstract side and want to keep it but with more excellent selectivity. It's been curious to appear with a new style that's really different from my more oneiric one and get feedback. I was pleased to know that audience love it. So, I may have a chance to surprise with something new in the future. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
Hello William and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://williamruller.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. You have a solid formal training: after having earned your BA in Painting/Ceramics from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, you nurtured your education with an MFA in Painting, that you received from the Savannah College of Art and Design: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum address the direction of your current artistic research on the theme of landscape? William Ruller: Thank you very much for including me in this issue, it’s an honor to be able to discuss my work with you. Before attending SUNY Plattsburgh, I want to Fulton Montgomery Community College. There I was taught by two incredible teachers, Carl Sedon and Joel Chapin. They both introduced me to the world of painting. Which to be honest I had no idea existed. I didn’t know at the time that there were even artists alive, I really only knew of Picasso and Van Gough. At Plattsburgh I learned how to commit myself to the studio. To really treat it as a job, and rigorously keep to working on my The abandoned mills and tanneries of my youth and the dilapidated areas of metropolitan and rural sites, with its rust grey tones inform the visual and aesthetic language present in my work. These residual sites serve as the foundation for the work, which allows for a reinterpretation of the space into abstracted images. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets William Ruller William M. Ruller, Born in Gloversville NY, 1981 received a B.A. in painting and ceramics from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in 2007. Following his undergraduate degree, Ruller moved to Oregon where he worked as a production potter and ceramics instructor. In 2014 he received is MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Ruller has been exhibited throughout Europe and the United States in group and solo exhibitions. His painting has been featured in Friend of the Artist Volume 12, Whitewall Art, New American Paintings Issues 111, 124 and Studio Visit Magazine Issues 20, 21, 23. His work is in private collections such as Hyatt Andaz Hotel, Savannah College of Art and Design and Museo Riso.
William Ruller Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW practice, whether it be painting or ceramics. After my BA I was smart enough to take a about 5 years before going after my MFA. During that time, I learned to work a full time while still working as an artist. That taught me to really value my time when I was in graduate school at SCAD. When I was pursuing my MFA I really focused on my career. I cared very deeply what my faculty thought during critiques but I tried to treat my time there as a residency. Networking and trying to show as often as I could. I had nothing but time and a studio so I really made the most of it, I hope. At my time in graduate school I decided that attempting to make work that was not personal for me just fell flat. At that point I looked at the place I come from Gloversville, NY and decided to make work about that. I think for a long time I ran from the influence of the postindustrial landscape that I grew up in. Around 2011 I just decided to run at it instead. And at this point I shifted to working predominantly on landscapes. Where I grew up, the area around Fulton County NY, really imbued itself upon me. It is not that the area is especially amazing or horrible, it’s very middle of the road. But there was a shift that occurred in the mid-late 80’s where stopped being what it was in my youth to what it would eventually become in my adulthood. My interest in creating works that live within that landscape really come out of necessity to remember. The city itself was like a friend growing up for me so all the work I create, that has that influence visually from that place, act like requiems for it. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape has at once impressed us for the way it invites the viewers to explore the relationship between reality and abstraction within the theme of landscape: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us what did lead you to shift your focus from industrial areas to the rural settings of the Luberon Valley in southern France? William Ruller: My process has changed a lot in the past year and a half. I have a two-yearold son, so my studio time has to not be wasted. I generally work on multiple pieces simultaneously so that there is if any issues of being stuck on a piece occurs, I can just shift to something else. I try my best to be practical with everything I do, so working on multiple pieces gives me the ability to use paint that has been mixed for other pieces in a second one. The same will go with a particular idea, or feeling or constructed space. This helps to build an overall narrative within a body of work. It also helps me to build an idea out. Usually I know somewhat where a painting might be heading, with what has originally sketched out, but that changes usually halfway through. Somewhere near the point where I think the painting is totally lost and I should just start over. Then suddenly out of seemingly nowhere things will start to click in one piece which rolls into the next and so on, like a set of dominoes. In 2016 I had the chance to teach for the Savannah College of Art and Design’s campus in Lacoste, France. I year later I participated in a residency program that SCAD has built for its alumni. And at that point the landscape of southern France had sunk its teeth into me. Look at a place with ruins that predate Europeans colonizing the country I come from just blew my mind. And I wanted to try and push myself into trying to place what I saw in the universe I know how to make in a language that I wasn’t sure I could speak. So that to me was a push to take me out of my comfort zone and really make me explore something totally unknown to me. But in
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition deeper inspection I realized that the themes of both industrial areas of north eastern NY and the Luberon Valley in southern France are very much the same. “humans make their mark and time and nature slowly erode it.” Which to me is where really beauty is. The truly ephemeral qualities of existence. It’s what really connects all my work, my work will eventually be gone, I will be gone and there is a good chance that the landscapes that I have seen will still be there. Mostly likely different, but still there. Your artworks are marked out with such sapient combination between rigorous sense of geometry — as in the interesting Under Our Knives and Leatherstocking — and careful choice of tones, that provide your works with such unique aesthetic identity: do you create your works intuitivelly, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? William Ruller: It’s really a combination of all three. I usually lay out a base drawing that helps me get started. Some works stick to the original lay out but for others it can change completely in the middle of the process. Usually at the end of a work I go back into structural elements that I put down in the beginning to pull out areas that I felt would extenuate what I created. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, the visual and aesthetic language present in your work is informed by the abandoned mills and tanneries of your youth and the dilapidated areas of metropolitan and rural sites: how do you consider the role of memory playing within your work as an artist? And how does your everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research? William Ruller: To me memory is the foundation of what I do. I feel that I cannot really speak to experiences that are outside of my own. Which is why I generally do not try to paint anything that is overtly political or social. My childhood was really the thing that made my understanding of beauty.
William Ruller Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition As I am sure most people that come from the rust belt feel. The idea of an area that is really falling in on itself is what you know to be normal. If I was born and raised someplace else, I would make different work. At this point in my life I don’t think that what happens now changes my aesthetic. But I am drawn to things that are in line with what I find beautiful. Most of my days revolve around my son so to be honest, playing with cars or
William Ruller scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
William Ruller Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW reading a book about a bear on Christmas morning I am sure are floating in my head but not outwardly in my work. My most recent work has really been looking at personal memories of mine with my father who recently passed away. I am trying to capture either actual memories of experiences with him, or ones that in my childhood I have created into something
scape Special Edition CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land different than what actually happened. These works that I have done in 2021 have really been some of the most personal works that I have done in years. Your artistic practice is marked out with sapient reinterpretation of the space into abstracted images: your artworks seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface: 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? William Ruller: I am really interested in how people interpret what they view in my work. At some points I am not fully aware of what is there when the painting is done. So sometimes the views interpretation is clearer than my own. And I don’t like works myself that give a direct line that the viewer is to follow. So, I like giving people room to figure things out on their own. I can only speak to what I know is in the work. In works like Toto or even The Space to Breath, I tried to create space and imagery that, although specific to me was somewhat universal. That way there seems to be a hint of a narrative with a combination of symbolism that strikes at the collective psyche. We have appreciated the delicate and thoughtful nuances that marks out your artworks, and that in Frontiers 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 to include in your paintings and in particular, how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such unique results? William Ruller: Most of the time my mental state in the studio fluctuates from a slight melancholy to somewhat of a mindlessness. I have, which I am sure most artist go through, these swaths of time where my mind is just in it and there really is not any real thought or feeling just this kind of void. In a way like what
William Ruller Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW meditation I believe must be like. Most of my works have a number of very thin layers that slowly build to the finished piece. I use a very thinned down oil paint that is brushed on then manipulated with a rubber squeegee. I also use large pieces of plastic that I place onto the works while the paint is wet to pull areas up. This creates these frostlike patterns within the paint, which are then layered onto. This way these very subtle, nuanced areas of the painting begin to come
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition out. Once the painting is really done, I usually add a layer of very thinly ground down clay dust. There is a reaction that occurs, due to the thinner and linseed oil that creates a vail over the work that accents the sections is not on. Your artworks, and more specifically Rosemary and Limbo, feature unique combination with dreamlike ambience and reference to real places. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings 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? William Ruller: Most of all the imagery in my work is strictly from memory. I usually work off a sketch but even the sketch is partly from memory. I don’t believe that the purpose of painting is to show the viewer what a photo can give you. It has to be something more. Even our most vivid memories have alterations in them that fit the narrative of our lives. Like speaking to someone about a shared experience, the both of you have two separate memories of the same event. I think that’s the beauty of art in general. It is something that calls us from a place that’s unknown and known something that is tangible and yet just out of reach. Year of Silence and Anniversary of an Uninteresting Even have reminded us the concept of non-place, elaborated by French anthropologist Marc Augé: when walking our readers through the genesis of such stimulating paintings, would you tell us how do you specifically select the locations that inspire your artworks? William Ruller: For me inspiration comes from every landscape in front of me. And luckily through the course of my life I have gotten to see quite a few. I then can take aspects of someplace outside of Los Angeles in the US and meld it with a landscape near Palermo, Sicily. I think when I am thinking about a specific place that would make for an interesting painting, I really focus on the emotion I had at the moment I was in that landscape. From there I try and use the landscape as the same emotional catalyst to present the viewer with something that can touch them or have them recognize the place, even without ever actually being there. You are an established artist: your work is in private collections such as Hyatt Andaz Hotel, Savannah College of Art and Design and Museo Risoover. Over the years you participated to a number of exhibitions, including fifteen solos: William Ruller Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition