The pandemic forced me to reconsider how I build and interact with an audinece. I got onto online platforms such as Instagram and Patreon for the first time. These platforms have allowed me to connect with a more global audenice and I now find myself walking the line between presentation in the virtual and therefore global space, and live presentation in the local community. In some ways viritual presentaiton seems at odds with the ethos of my work Alice Grendon scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
which is so much about connection to place. However my hope is that the spirit of the work is strong enough that it serves as an invitation to the viewer to consider thier own connection to place from anywhere they are viewing from. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Alice. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Alice Grendon: Right now I am working on a project called “Sea Inside”, an imersive performance art experience that takes place in a gallergy type setting invovling live movment, as well as film projection, and text. It is a mutlisensory expeirence, and some elements of the film component will be accesible via the internet from anywhere. Sea Inside explores the sanctity of water, the connection between our bodies and the land via the water, and protecting the specific ecology of the Salish Sea and Pacific Ocean. Currently this work is in its very early phases, I am still seeking the funding to fully realize this vision via grants and crowd-sourcing. Additionally, I am continuing to develop a small trio work currently called “Pace Yourself” which was shown as work in progress in Seattle, WA in June. Pace Yourself explores themes connected to business and rest, the pace we move as individuals and collectively, how that pace is or is not at odds with the cycels of the earth, or bodies, and well being. I view this as connected to my overarching explorations around living, creating, and dancing in the Anthropocene. I hope to dig into this particular piece more and explore this theme perhaps with several different groups of dancers over time. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Alice Grendon Land An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
Hello Capri and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training: you hold a BA of Fine and Studio Arts from Columbia College Chicago, and you later nurtured your education with a Master in Educational Leadership and Administration, that you received from the Arizona State University: how do these formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Growing up in Chicago, winters last for what seems like an eternity, and it’s gray for months. After years of constant gloomy weather, including the Blizzard of 1999, I was drawn to the warmth of the desert southwest. The organic shapes and subtle colors of the Sonoran Desert backdrop continue to inspire me. The open skies, astronomy, and cycles of the moon are elements I work with in my compositions. One of my favorite places to visit is Papago Park in Phoenix, a popular hiking spot. The curved lines, earth tones, and unique rock formations inform the visual components of the work. Painting is a meditative practice where I’m able to process emotions and quiet my mind. Through color, form, and texture my paintings represent interior states of consciousness and being. My aim is to create a sense a calm and serenity for the viewer. Acrylic and watercolor paints are my medium of choice, and I enjoy working large scale to experiment with different color and shape combinations. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Capri Landi Chicago native, Capri Landi studied fine arts at Columbia College and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. After relocating to Phoenix, Arizona, she soon discovered her life’s purpose, teaching and creating art. Since 2003, she has taught secondary visual arts in Phoenix, and earned her master’s degree in Education at Arizona State University. Capri’s recent artwork incorporates mystical tones, exposing layers of brushed paint through an abstract landscape and a sea of organic shapes. Her artistic influences are abstract artists Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Etel Adnan. Residing in Scottsdale, Arizona, she enjoys creating and donating artwork for Hospice of the West patients, traveling with husband, and exploring the desert with her black Labrador/Pitbull Mix. @capri.landi.art
Capri Landi photo by Ambre Kirk
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Warm Desert Night, 30" x 24", Acrylic on canvas
Moreover, how does your cultural substratum address the direction of your current artistic research? Capri Landi: Thank you for interviewing me and showcasing my artwork. I am honored to be a part of this edition of LandEscape Art Review. My post-secondary background started at a local community college in a suburb of Chicago, and this is where I started to get serious about my education. In school, classes like sociology, psychology, art history and studio art courses piqued my interest and carved the beginnings of my post-secondary education. After graduating with my Associate Degree, I started at Columbia College Chicago which was a small college situated in the South Loop area. Attending an art college in the 90’s was an invaluable experience for me as an artist. No social media or smartphones, and a heavy influence of music and vintage fashion were evident. Growing up in Chicago, I was immersed in a city rich in art and culture. I was surrounded by diverse architecture, and sculpture like the Picasso, Calder’s Flamingo, and observing them became a part of my daily routine. Another one of my favorite places was The Art Institute of Chicago, where one could get lost in the museum full of masterpieces. While attending Columbia College, I met wonderful teachers who helped train my aesthetic eye and develop my artistic skill, while encouraging creativity without judgement. A bonus was that I became friends with talented students from around the world, and most importantly, experienced my own selfdiscovery. These early experiences at Columbia College Chicago combined with my further studies at Arizona State University, shaped my art teaching philosophy: building a strong rapport with my students, supporting their creativity in a safe, non-judgmental space, and developing a life-long love of the fine arts. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape —and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way it unveils the connection between the inner world and the outside, and we truly appreciate the way your works blends the real with the imagined, highlighting the uniqueness of the viewers' response to the work of art. When walking our readers through the genesis of your works, would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? In particular, how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your artistic process? Capri Landi: Thank you for your careful observation, kind feedback, and critique of my art. There is a connection between what I’m feeling inside, my vulnerabilities, working with my inner critic, and how I choose to share that with the outside world. In my studio, I have an open and unrestrictive approach to my setup and process. Music playing in the background plays a huge role in my studio time. Moreover, the landscape here in the southwest has a major influence on my work; however, I find inspiration everywhere. The light of the moon, the sound of the ocean, or a cloud formation, reminds me of an emotion or dream, and moves me on a spiritual level. I try to recapture those visions in my artwork. I start by sketching these visual components and write down my thoughts and perceptions. Non-judgement, improvisation, and reflection are three methods that I work with to create my sketches and paintings. Sometimes in my Capri Landi scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
studio practice, I will not draw anything, I will only mix colors. I will note the relationships of color and space as I may use it in a future project. As an introvert, I have a lot of feelings and thoughts, I acknowledge those thoughts, and brainstorm on them. I pair an image, color, and shape with the feelings. My thoughts are very personal to me, and the way I release or express them is by creating my art. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a psychologist that I am interested in, and I studied his concept of flow. He stated that flow is being fully immersed in an activity that you enjoy, while doing it, you get so wrapped up in the activity that you may lose track of time while experiencing an immense sense of joy. The concept of flow is exactly what I feel when I go through my creative process, and the result of that flow is sometimes a tangible piece of art. Marked out with such organic feeling and balanced sense of geometry, your works feature recurrent smooth contours and shapes that we dare say essential on the visual aspect. Would you tell us something about such refined geometric feeling? Capri Landi: The recurrent smooth contours and shapes are something I am constantly working with, understanding, and fine tuning. I started experimenting with these shapes several years ago, and I am still learning and observing how they work with one another. With that, I love the feeling I experience when drawing and painting these shapes. I have a large sketchbook and I use a graphite pencil to draw them. When I’m sketching, I enjoy the beginning stages of the graphite pencil touching the surface. I love repeating, blending, and tracing the shapes, like a gentle scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Capri Landi scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Window, 22" x 30", Watercolor on paper
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Capri Landi scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land dance or a movement. The drawing creates an energetic field and a musical rhythm on and around the surface. I then transfer that onto a large canvas or a large sheet of hot press watercolor paper. The tones of your works — be they intense as in Darkness&light, be they marked out with such thoughtful, almost meditative ambiance, as in Fire Bloom — create delicate tension and dynamics: how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your works? In particular, what role does play intuition in the composition of your pallette? Capri Landi: Intuition and experimentation play a large role in all the color palettes I use. I intuitively pair different colors with various emotions. I love creating the contrast of warm neutral colors with cool, gray blues; I think it's grounding and magnetic. I find myself neutralizing colors and placing them with their complements. In Darkness&light, I experimented with painting a layer of opaque watercolors, and brushed metallic watercolors on top of the opaque colors. This was done on black cold press watercolor paper. The metallic paint glistens on the page. It reminds me of the beach at night and watching the waves shimmer under the moon’s reflection. This emulates the powerful connection that I feel with the moon and the night sky. In Fire Bloom, I used red and orange opaque watercolors on hot press watercolor paper. This is a landscape that has a warm, fire-like quality paired with the softness of a shapely moon and clouds. It’s feminine in nature, with the shape of the flower rooting from the ground. The colors bleed into one another, creating different color combinations within the grounding color field.
Solace, 22" x 30", Watercolor on paper
In the Moonlight 16” x 12” Acrylic on canvas
You travel a lot, exploring the Sonoran Desert: we dare say that your works could be considered a response to direct experience mediated by the lens of memory: do you agree with this intepretation? In particular, how does your everyday life's experience and your memories — due to the years that you spent in Chicago — fuel your creative process? Capri Landi: Chicago was where I was born and raised and living there has had a major impact on my creativity. I have memories of painting when it’s overcast, leaves changing colors, and listening to the rain while sipping on a hot cup of coffee. One drawback of living in Chicago, was the coldness and gray skies for months at a time, creating a feeling of melancholy. There are bittersweet undertones of missing home, the city sights, and my family recognizable to me in my work. The contrast of having lived in a cold, midwestern city and now living in the desert southwest has provided me with two very different ways of life, which are both very much a part of me. I use my life experience from my hometown, my current residence, and travels for ideas, concepts, and feelings to create my Capri Landi scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Old Friends 16” x 12” Acrylic on canvas in the blue 16” x 12” Acrylic on canvas
work. What’s special about living in Phoenix, is that there is usually a sunny backdrop with warm tones, mountains, and subtle color changes to always welcome new art and inspiration. Your artistic influences are abstract artists Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Etel Adnan, and we highly appreciate the way your works address your audience to dive into the abstract, almost dreamlike dimension. 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? Capri Landi: I consider the relationship between reality and imagination by pondering a certain concept, thought, or feeling, as a starting point, then develop ideas from there. I observe these thoughts and feelings as possible drawing prompts and paintings that can be branched out, re-evaluated, and expanded upon. I love to play with the concepts and transform scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Lean on Me 30" x 22" Watercolor on paper Pink Moon 14" x 10" Watercolor on paper
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Capri Landi Land Cardamom Dreams, 30" x 24", Acrylic on canvas
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them into an ethereal, dreamlike dimension. You are a versatile artist and your abstract works conveys such subtle figurative feeling, that reveal the way you draw inspiration from open skies, astronomy, and cycles of the moon. We daresay that such stimulating visual ambivalence that marks out your artistic production aims to urge the spectatorship to a participative effort, to realize their own interpretation. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: 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? Capri Landi: Thank you for taking note of my versatility and figurative qualities of my work. It is important for me to provide a space for the viewers to project onto, whether that be to daydream, experience calm or feel something on a deeper level, whatever that may be, that’s up to the viewer. I hope they find it serene and healing. Two of my paintings Moon in Sagittarius and Blood Moon celebrated the full moon lunar eclipse, which were spiritual and soulful, taking elements of chaos and change to create beauty. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, painting is for you a meditative practice where your able to process emotions and quiet your mind: do you think that art — both for creatives and for their audience — could be considered as a therapy? Capri Landi: Art is therapeutic both for the creator and the spectator. My artwork and art practice tend to be extremely personal, meditative, and highly spiritual in nature. Georgia O’Keeffe states, “I found I could say things with Capri Landi scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” My MBTI (Myers Briggs) personality type is INFJ, which is introverted in nature, deeply personal, sensitive, and imaginative. I like to take these personality traits and embed them in my scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Tamarind Moon, 30" x 30", Acrylic on canvas
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paintings. That self-knowledge provides me with a deeper insight into my work, and I then experience a state of creative flow. You often work with large canvass, that provide your specatorship with such immersive visual experience: how do the dimensions of your pieces affect your workflow? Capri Landi: I work on either color studies, or small pieces as much as I can. When I deep dive into a concept or a new painting, I prefer to go large. The larger canvases take up more time and space, which in a small studio, with my dog, can be challenging and sometimes even messy. I think these little challenges, add humor and joy to my painting experience. You are an established artist and over the years you have showcased your artworks in many occasions, including the Hokin Art Gallery and most recently at First Friday at Arizona State University: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? As the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Capri Landi: In person viewing will always be the most authentic way to see and feel art. Museums, outdoor art spaces, and public gatherings are wonderful ways to get people together to experience, learn, and observe. However, I love the availability and broader audience of online platforms. On Instagram, I enjoy creating videos or reels focusing on my process and setting it to music, including viewers in my space. In addition to posting my paintings on Instagram, I share my photography, and other items that inspire me. What’s nice about online platforms and online art galleries is the scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Capri Landi scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Like a Phoenix, 30" x 40", Acrylic on canvas
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition fire bloom, 11” x 15”, Watercolor on paper
availability and accessibility to a variety of artists, and the ability to view work worldwide. Online platforms also provide an artist support system and following at the same time. In addition, these forums serve as an education and collaboration piece, spreading positivity. The link to my Instagram is https://www.instagram.com/capri.landi.art 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, Capri. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Capri Landi: Thank you for the detailed analysis and thought-provoking discussion of my artwork. I am truly grateful. It has been a wonderful experience working with the LandEscape Art Team! Currently, I am working on a series of paintings that have many layers of underpainting and transparent paint layers with textured brush strokes. These are abstract landscapes with the sky, moon cycles, and cloud motifs. These paintings are entitled In the blue, In the Moonlight, and Old Friends where blue and green are dominant colors. These cool colors are a nice contrast to hot temperatures in Phoenix. As for the future, I’d love to explore new color combinations in my next set of paintings, develop a fine arts curriculum for audiences of all ages, and continue volunteering in the community. Thank you, LandEscape! scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Capri Landi Land An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
Hello Newsha and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate on your artistic production we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you hold a Master's degree in industrial design: how do these formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum due to your Persian roots — as well as your work in the field of Design — address the direction of your current artistic research? In product design process, the designer must have an understanding of visual elements in order to convey the desired concepts to the audience. Suppose that a designer decides to design men's classic shoes, he/she must know the characteristic of those who wear classic shoes and know what message these shoes are supposed to convey to the viewer. The designer prioritizes the concepts, turns them into visual elements and uses these elements in shoe design and provides a product with the user's desired concepts. In relation to Iranian culture, I must point out that, basically, in Eastern culture, visual elements and phenomena have deeper concepts than usual concepts. For example, in buildings with a dome, the element of circle and its central point is not just a creative game with form. It speaks of the idea of monotheism and the meaning of unity. The combination of these two, my field of study and the semantic culture in which I was brought up, has made every phenomenon to have a meaning beyond its outer shell. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape — and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way it unveil the connections between ordinary life experience and the dreamlike dimension, inviting the viewers to capture the bond between abstraction and reality within the theme of iranian landscape. When walking An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Newsha Emamishahri
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our readers through the genesis of your works, would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? Newsha Emamishahri: The most important principle that I follow, is not to use a specific form. I spend most of my time analyzing the colors of the paintings and trying to match the inspiring reality as much as possible. The tones of your works — be they intense and bright, be they marked out with such thoughtful, almost meditative ambiance— create delicate tension and dynamics: how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your works? In particular, what role does play intuition in the composition of your pallette? Newsha Emamishahri: I don't have any bias for color selection, the desired Thomas Pickarski scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land ___ 2 ___ 3
phenomenon decides how the colors will be put together, I just try to look carefully at the phenomena. As you have remarked once, your works are inspired by historical places, architectural works, natural landscapes, environment and wildlife of Iran: how does your everyday life's experience and your memories fuel your creative process? Newsha Emamishahri: I try to look for new phenomena, buildings that I have not seen before, phenomena that I am observing for the first time. The truth is that the phenomena that I have seen many times lose their initial shocking effect and no longer inspire that pure feeling that I'd had when I first encountered them. The only way I have found to separate the phenomena from everyday life is to look at their pictures. The photo revives that hidden power in the phenomena. Even when my studio seems boring to me, I turn on my mobile camera and without taking pictures, I just look at the mobile screen and let the camera lens look at the environment instead of my eyes. Immediately, I realize the great blessing I have. We highly appreciate the way your works address your audience to explore the connection between the real places that inspire your artworks and abstraction. British painter Peter Doig once remarked scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
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Thomas Pickarski scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land 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? Newsha Emamishahri: The vastness of the world in which the mind operates cannot be compared to the world of reality. I give credit to all those artists who are looking for a wider world to work in. Sometimes the reality does not respond relating to what the artist's mind needs. So the artist inevitably enters a world that meets the needs of their own mind. You are a versatile artist and your production encompasses both abstract and figurative works. Still, each of them conveys such stimulating visual ambivalence: 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? Newsha Emamishahri: I have tried to make the audience enter into a mental game by standing in front of the painting and leave their physical position for a few seconds and adapt the concepts with the elements used on the canvas in a boundless world. Like a screenplay that places hidden dimensions in its heart and leaves it up to the audience to find it.
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Your artworks provide the viewers with such immersive visual experience: how do the dimensions of your canvass affect your workflow? Newsha Emamishahri: Although larger dimensions have a great impact on how the artwork will affect the audience, the choice of canvas size depends on the hand movement that I intend to have in order to create the work. How do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your artistic process? In particular, what role does play intuition in the composition of your pallette? Newsha Emamishahri: Before starting each piece, I see the completed work on the canvas. In fact, seventy percent of it. The remaining 30% will appear by itself during the work. If during the work, a part of the painting is ___6 ___ 7
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depicted in a way that is not foreseen and does not conflict with my intended concept, I would greatly appreciate it. And in fact, I start each work with the enthusiasm of seeing these unexpected moments. You are an established artist and over the years have been international showcased in Iran, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and in the United States: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? As the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Newsha Emamishahri: According to the style in which I work, I have to establish a warm and sincere relationship with the audience and give them the right not to understand everything that I decided to share with them at the first glance. I have to answer all the questions that arise in their mind. I am sure that after viewing a few Thomas Pickarski scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land ___ 10 ___ 11
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works and talking about them, they will establish a good connection with other works and we can fly together in the world of the mind and talk for hours without even saying a word and enjoy this conversation to the fullest. 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, Newsha. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Newsha Emamishahri: Being with you was truly pleasant, the questions were very interesting, thank you for your attention. Currently, I am working on an article called A case study with the aim of analyzing the relationship between the semantic approach and visual elements in industrial design. Plus, I am working on three paintings called The red conure, A bar of neo-classic music and The northern lights, which are about 80% completed. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition ___ 13 ___ 14
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Hello Adrienne and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://adriennelafaye.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. Are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your culture address the direction of your current artistic research? Adrienne La Faye: Innately as an artist, I absorb things others wouldn’t. When I was introduced to finger painting in kindergarten at five years old, I knew I would grow up to be an artist. The colors, Ooooh, the beautiful thick glistening globs of love that oozed between my fingers, solidified my future. However, I was discouraged from following my path because of gender and race in exchange for an economically secure middle-class lifestyle. I’m compelled to chronicle today's and yesterday's excluded history of the African American diaspora. What is interesting to me because I paint with beautiful colors, and some can’t see through the pretty colors to where the pain lies. I’m a COLORIST. I’ve coined a tag line, “Without Color, Why Paint”? I love the purity of every color, and I refuse to muddy colors for the sake of trends. Born and raised in Seattle, WA., Adrienne La Faye is a Painter, an Author, and filmmaker, a Community Social Justice Art Educator focused on chronicling the African American diaspora. A narrator compelled artistic-historian, an African American woman, an activist, same-gender married, and. She's a defender of the disenfranchised, the marginalized from systemic racist judicial systems. Her exceptional skills as a COLORIST are second to none. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Adrienne La Faye Lives and works in Seattle, WA, USA "All People are born into the world with a purpose. However, family, society, gender bias, socioeconomics, etc., have dissuaded us from utilizing and following our passions. Daily we must persevere to reclaim our True-Selves."~Adrienne La Faye~ @brnartist
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You are a versatile artist with such a stimulating multidisciplinary approach: you are a painter, author, and filmmaker: how important is it for you to experiment with different disciplines to create? Adrienne La Faye: I have an insatiable desire to learn, and each genre feels like a natural migration for my work. Using various mediums never feels like an experiment, more like teachable moments. Each piece decides how it needs to be shown/seen. https://www.adriennelafaye.com When walking our readers through the genesis of Essential Workers, would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? Adrienne La Faye: I strive to be socially conscious as possible; the news is a constant creative conduit for my work. I research vast topics to comprehend different viewpoints and lifestyles. Since the pandemic, our world has changed and will never be the same. Folks are Adrienne La Faye scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land EESUU ORINIDI ART TEACHER Artist & Photographer: Adrienne La Faye TWELVE ALL COPYRIGHTS RESERVED © 2022 HOSPITAL ENVIRO SPECIALIST Artist & Photographer: Adrienne La Faye TWELVE ALL COPYRIGHTS RESERVED © 2022
speaking out, acting out, restlessly confined, living disconnected from their families, jobs, neighbors, church, entertainment, wars, inequality policing, racism, and mass shootings; many have lost direction. I look at the whole picture and then decipher and convert it to art. We have appreciated the refined sense of geometry expressed by regular patterns that mark out the background of many of the works from your Essential Workers series and provide Rev. Blue Eyes, Nurse, and Environmental Specialist, with visual fluidity: how do you structure your process to achieve such brilliant results? In particular, how do you consider intuition's role in creating the structure of your works? Adrienne La Faye: Intuition is complicated to explain; Many of my paintings paint themselves. I’m present, I plan, but things can change quickly. However, reading a scripture text, Romans12:4-5, speaks to how we each have a part to play in the functioning of the church's body. I translate that into my work; each section of work has importance and beauty. It stands by itself amidst the whole composition. Also, I have an infinite love for STAINED GLASS windows. Lol. Your portraits, more specifically Shipping Clerk and David Carr from your Essential Workers series, feature intense, warm nuances able to create such intimate—we dare say even cozy— ambiance that makes sense of connection with the viewers, who are gently invited to identify with your characters: how does your psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your portraits? Adrienne La Faye: I’m an optimist and have a warm disposition that shines through my work. I interviewed all my subjects, but the pandemic scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Adrienne La Faye scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land GARBAGE TEAM Artist & Photographer: Adrienne La Faye TWELVE ALL COPYRIGHTS RESERVED © 2022
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Adrienne La Faye scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land changed how I interacted with issues. Usually, I meet and interview the folks that I paint. Now only using video gives me new insights into their personalities because I can rewind at leisure. I experience subjects by asking them personal, quirky, and hard to answers questions to obtain the nuances that dictate the color, size, and background. https://www.adriennelafaye.com Essential Workers series draws from the recent pandemic: how do your memories and everyday life experiences fuel your creative process? Adrienne La Faye: I was vaccinated and ended up in the ICU for three days. I almost died from an anaphylactic reaction. The doctors don’t know why. That’s why I painted the “ESSENTIAL WORKER” series. For nearly three years, it’s been tough for me as an artist. All of my work is influenced by family, history, and inequality systemic racists constructs. My life decides what, when, how, and why I paint, write, illustrate, digitally draw, or film. I have to paint what is real; I wouldn’t be true to my artistry if I ignored my surroundings to paint abstracts or landscapes, even though I paint those too, but only when I need to escape reality. Your artistic journey is centered on chronicling the African American diaspora, with an essential focus on social justice issues. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under". How do you consider the relationship between a political system and the artist's creative process? Moreover, as a community social justice art educator, what could be, in your opinion, the role of artists in making people aware of various issues that affect our unstable societies? Adrienne La Faye: I can’t say what every artist's assigned role is to interpret, interrupt or awaken folks for the good of humanity. I do believe each
SURGEON Artist & Photographer: Adrienne La Faye TWELVE ALL COPYRIGHTS RESERVED © 2022