Our forty-seventh post of the series, Artists in the Time of Coronavirus includes Maureen Catbagan, Jon Simon (Quest) Stephanie Riely, Mark Lakos, Elena Borstein, and Myrna Bloom Marcus! Thank you for all who submitted! And if you want to participate, send your statement (250 words max) and 2 photos to support@theartblog.org. More details here. Stay safe and stay positive, and come back in the days to come for more “Artists in the Time of Coronavirus.” We have a wonderful community and are so proud of being able to share everyone’s art.
[Note: We have gotten over 300 submissions, so if you haven’t seen yours yet, don’t worry- it is coming, and we can’t wait to post it!]
Maureen Catbagan
My Dark Matter photography triptych series is a meditation on the question of representation and the perceptual conditions that enable us to see not only art, but also multiple forms of difference. I photograph staircases, ceilings, passageways, and guards within museums, essential components that are seldom considered. They occupy a complicated relationship to functionality and value, much like the conditions of labor within capital. These triptychs center and translate peripheral bodies and spaces into alternate forms of possibility and agency by activating strategies of temporal looping, listening, and shadow work. I approach representation through sensation, in order to perceive the fullness of what is absent within the Western frame. These aesthetic disruptions shift dominant notions of objectification and labor to create radical reorientations. During this pandemic and quarantine with the staggering rate of unemployment rising, addressing the value of labor as artists and cultural workers is more important now than ever.
Website: maureencatbagan.com
Jon Simon (Quest)
NJ based artist Jonathan Simon, known as Quest, focuses on expressing his experiences and views on personal, public, and worldly matters. His latest piece “GOING VIRAL” documents his quarantine experience during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the headlines that the media bombards us with while we were in lockdown. While many features of the painting are upfront, there are some significant hidden images and careful placements that create a dialog of it’s own.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
If you look carefully, you’ll see that the whole painting is framed in black, because the whole image is a tv screen. The painting comes with an electric cord and fake outlet plug.
The images in the center of the painting are contained by the outline of China’s borders, while the image of the leaning tower of Pisa is located represents the location of Wuhan Province.
IG: @QuestAcrylz
Etsy.com/shop/questacrylz
Www.questacrylz.com
Facebook: artist group page @QuestArtStudio
Stephanie Riely
These are tiny watercolor paintings I have been working on. I find being confined at home with family leaves me with very little ‘me’ time. I take advantage of the late hours to center myself almost daily. I use this time to create tiny watercolors from the comfort of my couch while zoning out in front of a movie.
-Stephanie Riely
Instagram: sriely_art
Mark Lakos
[Notice the greatness in your surroundings, create and capture the beauty around you!
There are so many tiny things that you don’t notice, when everything is ‘normal’. There are so many places, where you pass by every day, but you never observe or appreciate its ‘beauty’.]Life has become faster than ever in the recent years, now we have the chance to take a step back to see what makes our everyday life extraordinary.
My works aim to capture the intriguing and sometimes not so obvious beauty of our contemporary life, using unique perspectives and choice of colours.Visit my instagram for more works: www.instagram.com/lakos.mark/
If you like the original paintings or simply would like to support my art, do not hesitate to get in touch with me.Stay safe, stay creative and keep creating!
Elena Borstein
This painting is part of a series called Color of Architecture” honoring Mexican Architect , Luis Barragan. 2015-2020. This painting is one of several that protest the detaining of Mexican Immigrants at our southern border. See more work by Elena on Elenaborstein.com.
Myrna Bloom Marcus
Let “idea” art be. I remain committed to making objects, and ‘catalogs’ of objects, as beautifully as I can.
• Working in two dimensions, I try to present my 3-dimensional subject accurately, whether it is alive, or designed and manufactured. Despite concentrating on my model, it’s humor or elegance to me, its juxtaposition to other objects and the space around it … the result is a final image that is generally very different from what the camera’s eye would see.
We have two eyes. We have knowledge and experience of, and interaction with our subject. The influences of giants from the arts of the ages (the sophisticated whimsy of a Mozart sonata) co-mingles with our own experience.
• What is already three dimensional doesn’t move me to mimic it; hence my abstract sculpture. Concern is with both the solid volume and the way its outer contour moves around itself and into its surroundings. In whatever medium, its surface is generally smooth and polished, scratches and contour irregularities eliminated – so that the sightless person with highly developed touch sensitivity might enjoy the contrasts of curves and rounds, angles and sharp edges – as much as a sighted person can.
Color, and the reflectivity of polished surfaces, are of deep personal interest; influences drawn from the magic of mirrors and qualities of the sun. Each shape and volume, its edges and contours, are intended to contrast as well as harmonize with its shiny surface.
Positioning and balancing are important considerations, whether the sculpture is symmetrical and grounded as we humans are, or its equilibrium appears precarious, as our moods sometimes are. My multi-positionable pieces especially show such conditions, like those we have all felt – in airplanes, under water … in the pre-birth state.
• My one-of-a-kind laser and giclée prints combine real objects with abstract surprise.
In whatever medium, whether representational or abstract,
and whether of varying depths of illusionistic space in a picture,
or of volume in a three-dimensional work,
whether showing deep colors that oil paint stimulates,
or my pastel sensibility to acrylics,
whether the open lacy work of welded steel or the smooth solid object …
the roof that covers all of my work is one of attention to detail within the house.Precision is a word I hear.
Myrna Bloom
www.myrnabloomart.com
