Tag: artist showcase

Artist Showcase: Ken Ricci

This latest Artist Showcase highlights the interesting collage work of Ken Ricci. If you would be interested in having a showcase of your work on the blog, please email kdoutsiderart@yahoo.com.

The motion pictures shown in this theatre are for mature adults over 21 who are not easily offended

When did your interest in art/creating begin?

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I started creating collages three years ago, covering the top and first three drawers of my black filing cabinet. The images and graphics I cut, pasted & sealed, came from a couple of boxes of ephemera I’d saved inside the cabinet. They came out as four collages and after creating them, I began an unfolding series of collages. If I could point to the beginning of my interest in the visual arts, it would be during my job in the art department of the Strand Book Store in The East Village, NYC. All those amazing art books.

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So…predictable

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What is your starting point for each piece?

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Since collaging the original filing cabinet I’ve been working on 1/8″ hardboard ranging from 2″x4″ to smaller 8″x24″ panels. As the size of the panels change, so does my approach to the work. The starting point for each depends on the size of the panel. If I am working on a large piece like a 2″x4″ or a 20″x40″, I start in the upper left corner and improvise my way across and down the panel in a series of problem solving steps using whatever images, colors, shapes or textures I have at my disposal (collected & cut-out… and maybe cut again).

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My current preference is for the 8″x24″ panels because the size allows me to ‘rough out’ the whole piece. But even then, between the time I make a layout and the time I get the glue onto it, it always changes. The true starting point for any one of my works is the ‘visual vocabulary’ of the cut-out pieces I’ve chosen to use on the panel at hand. Generally included: architectural images (past & present), evocative – sometimes mysterious – figures, designs or images, either from nature or man-made.

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I don’t know what happened… the evening started out so well

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Who/what influences your work?

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Selected images strewn then gathered on the worktable are the determining factors of each panel. It is an on-going process as they are culled from old magazines with advertisements, city planning booklets, architectural and interior design magazines or discarded books on almost any subject.

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To name artists: in some way possibly the work of Hieronymus Bosch, Romare Beardon, and George Tooker has influenced my own perspective.

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Come in… the dream just started

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What do you hope the viewer gets from your work?

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Engagment and personal resonance with a particular panel one can relate to.

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Ya know I think he’s gonna make it

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What do you think about the term Outsider Art? Is there a term that you think works better?

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Well, when I think of Outsider, I think of Colin Wilson’s meditation on the Outsider. In many ways that sense of disquiet is, I think, evident in my latest series of captioned panels. Beyond that, the ‘Outsider Art’ category is a refreshing, free spirited notion and it has an advantage in that the only expectations in play are your own.

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You’re next. Your name will be called

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What are you working on at the moment?

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My most current work includes a series of black/white/grey captioned panels – the captions are more than a title. They are part of the work being viewed.

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Oh man, I left my keys in that cab

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Where do you see your work taking you in the future?

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Where ever the material takes me.

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Click here to see more of Ken’s work

June 6, 2018
Artist Showcase: Luciana Miles

Following the blog’s 5th anniversary celebratory exhibitions and all they encompassed, I am very pleased to bring you the first Artist Showcase of 2017! This time, we get the chance to hear all about artist Luciana Mile’s work.

Luciana Miles, Untitled

When did your interest in art/creating begin?

I’ve always been interested in some form of art. I spent a good amount of my life in the theatre. My interest in visual art began in middle school, but didn’t really come into fruition until 2010 or 2011.

Luciana Miles, Untitled

What is your starting point for each piece?

My starting point is a blank canvas.

Luciana Miles, Untitled

Who/what influences your work?

I think everything in my small universe influences my work, but I really love Dada.

Luciana Miles, Untitled

What do you hope the viewer gets from your work?

I don’t really look too far past the completion stage. Once a painting is done, I no longer consider it mine.

Luciana Miles, Untitled

What do you think about the term outsider art? Is there a term that you think works better?

I think it’s fine. I don’t generally like labels but I understand their purpose.

Luciana Miles, Untitled

What are you working on at the moment?

The next painting.

Luciana Miles, Untitled

Where do you see your work taking you in the future?

Painting somewhere in the South of France.

Luciana Miles, Untitled

Click here to see more of Luciana’s work

March 1, 2017
Artist Showcase: Beatrice Roberts

In a bid to showcase more great art by talented artists on the blog, this month, I asked artist Beatrice Roberts to answer a few questions about her influences and inspiration, and share with us a selection of her fantastically vibrant works.

Where did your interest in art/creating begin?

When I was about 10 my family started going to a holiday camp every year and there was always some pastel portrait artists there. I would stand there for hours and hours watching people have their portraits done, while other kids went to the fairground or did crazy golf or something. I would disappear for hours to go watch them – my mum and dad would always come to the artists to find me. They knew I would be there, absolutely fascinated by the process. I then started drawing portraits of pop stars and my friends and family, and I’m still interested in portraiture and figurative art all these years later.

What is your starting point for each piece? And what is the subsequent process?

Most of my pieces start off with a monoprint. I lay down a shape in thick acrylic on perspex or paper and make a simple print onto another sheet of paper. That shape becomes my subject. I enjoy this process because it’s – perversely – out of my control. I have to work with what is there – with the print I am left with. This makes for a bit of a challenge as I have to ‘bring the work round’ into something recognisable. My animal paintings are also done this way. A large proportion of my work is produced in this manner and I never know what I am going to end up with as I rarely plan. I work spontaneously and my paintings grow organically as I am creating them. I also like to use foam shapes to print with and I often use the stick end of the brush to apply paint to the surface to give raised, impasto lines sections. I love the rawness I get with this technique.

I use a lot of bright colour in my work, which makes me happy. I build up a great depth of colour by adding several coats of acrylic and which gives a rich, jewel like appearance. I use drawing pens a lot too, adding dots, dashes and outlines with these. Oil pastels also make an appearance sometimes giving another dimension to artwork as they form a kind of ‘resistance’ which the water based paint skates over.

Who or what influences your work?

I enjoy raw art (outsider art?) mostly and I have many favourite artists who all must influence me subconsciously, in one way or another. The list would probably be too long to mention. I have been told that my work is kind of ‘edgy’ or slightly disturbing and I would sort of agree with that – I wouldn’t say my life’s been easy. I got myself into a very bad, long term situation which was incredibly difficult to get out of. I have noticed that recently themes have been coming through my work which relate to the trauma I and my children endured throughout this terrible time. I am sure that being a survivor does have an influence in what I paint and the way I paint. I am finding that being able to refer to these awful times , in my work, is helping me to heal in a way.

On a lighter note, I do tend to include quite a lot of humour in my art and I am particularly fond of collaging ‘gutter press’ magazine headlines into my pieces to add some sort of weird dimension to which the viewer can add their own thoughts and perceptions.

The other theme that runs through quite strongly is animals. I am a great respecter of the bird and animal kingdom and I paint a lot of animal, bird and underwater creature subjects, although these are often just for my own enjoyment. I was given a book for my birthday about Ernst Haeckel, the philosopher, biologist and artist and I have been greatly influenced by his beautiful illustrations.

What do you hope the viewer gets from your work?

I hope that they see the voice of a woman with a past, with lots of life experience, who has suffered ups and downs, who has a story to tell. However, I hope they also get my humour, positivity and personality coming through in my work. I had a very bad experience, I lost many, many years, when I was isolated and turned into a non-person, but I am making up for lost time. I am bruised, but my spirit is absolutely not broken.

What do you think about the term outsider art – is it an umbrella you’re happy to be under? Is there a more preferable term?

Well, due to my own life experience, I feel like an outsider most of the time. I’m not a ‘people person’ and some of this is, I’m sure, due to my past. I was bullied for many years and my self confidence was eroded to a massive extent. I still have anxiety issues because of it. I was also isolated from family, friends and any support networks, so I got into the habit of being self reliant. These days I have a wonderful partner and I am slowly but surely healing, but as my art is me, and I feel like an outsider, it is probably a reasonable term to use for my art.

What are you working on at the moment?

I have started work on some nude figures. As I mostly focus on heads in my paintings, this is going to be really interesting for me. I am also preparing some pieces for the Nottingham Castle Open, which is for emerging and established artists in the Midlands. I didn’t make it last year, but I am going to give it another go!

Where do you see your art taking you in the future?

I would obviously like more people to see my art. I have a website at www.bearoberts.co.uk and I would ideally like gallery representation further afield than my own county. To be represented by a London gallery would give my art credibility and would enable my work to be seen by serious art collectors. Meanwhile, I will continue to submit to as many exhibitions as I can and hopefully gain some collectors. I would also like to possibly create some larger works as I do work on quite a small scale currently.

You can see more of Beatrice’s work by CLICKING HERE. Additionally, you can follow her on Twitter: @BEATRICEMARTIST.

July 1, 2015