Featuring Sculptor Joe Gitterman

Stunning, breathtaking, and dynamic are just a few ways to describe sculptor Joe Gitterman's works of art. Using a unique array of fine metals and finishes, his designs become a focal point of interest whether in a residential, commercial, or public domain.

Mr Gitterman has an impressive list of private commissions and has the ability to fabricate his sculptures in many sizes. Please enjoy his fascinating story and our discussion below.

1) Joe thank you so much for participating in this interview. Your sculptures are stunning! After an illustrious career on the New York Stock Exchange, what propelled you into the life of a professional artist and sculptor?

I took my first art classes many years ago when my wife was working nights in the theater. I was working in the New York Stock Exchange at the time and my nights were free so I decided to put them to good use and nurture my interest in art. It became a hobby that I spent a lot of time on. I worked in plaster, wood and marble but really fell in love with metal. In 2011 I happen to participate in a gallery show and ended up selling a few pieces. It was a pleasant surprise to me that my pieces sold. I quickly mounted a website and became a full-time working artist.

2) When did you first become interested in the arts? 

Like many people I owe my interest in arts to a teacher.  My 6th grade teacher was fantastic and really encouraged me to express myself through art. 

3) Your sculptures are infused with movement. How does your thought process work when you begin a new piece or a new series of art?

It's a process in which I get a picture in my mind. I try to create what I am visualizing but sometimes I end up with something different than I originally envisioned. Sometimes that ends up being a really exciting surprise

4)  Who has influenced your style and creativity? Are there mentors or other artists that you respect and admire?

To name just three I would say Brancusi, Hepworth and Moore. My mentors and other artists that I admire is a very long list of amazing talents and contemporaries that have helped me. Too many to mention. 

5) Joe, I understand you do many private commissions from clients such as the renowned interior designer Robert Couturier to Norwegian Cruise Lines. Would you tell us more about that? 

For me the most exciting aspect of doing a commissioned piece or pieces is creating something that fits into and compliments the aesthetic of a specific location or design need. It is very different than creating something I love for myself. I recently installed a piece in a luxury residential building by architecture icon Robert A.M. Stern in Washington DC. It is the only sculpture in the building. 

6) Where can readers find your sculptures and do you have any upcoming exhibits? 

I'm working on some future exhibits and more information is available on my website - WWW.JOEGITTERMAN.COM  I am also on Instagram, Pinterest, FaceBook and some art exhibition sites. 

7) What is your advice to the beginning artist of any age? 

Be passionate about what you do and always keep exploring. 

Thank you again, Joe! 

Thank you to my Family, Friends and Followers who support The Arts!

xoxo

Karena

The Arts by Karena

Featuring Artist Leah Bowring

Leah Bowring is an artist who is a dynamic, balanced, and very intuitive young woman. To have a conversation with her, you come to realize how much synergy exists between her life and her art.

She creates ceramic pieces that are delicate, ethereal, and subtly detailed. Then another body of her work will be richly functional with a strong vitality about them.

During Leah's undergraduate years she spent time in Tokyo studying the Japanese language, historical ceramics, architecture and theater, while also teaching English in the interim between her formal degrees. She studied with Koiichi Koyama, a very accomplished Japanese potter, conducting personal research, analyzing traditional Japanese kilns while traveling throughout Japan. Her design aesthetic from this time is authentically apparent.

Leah now lives in Northern California and loves to run the trails surrounding the area. Here she achieves a rhythm and meditative state of mind, where creativity flows harmoniously without the interference and disquiet of the city. 

From her artist's statement:

"I make sculptural vessels to comment directly on a state of mind of clarity and lightness when experiencing open landscape. I make pots to take part in nourishing the body with this same tone of mindfulness and meditation. Forming habits to take care of the self are worthwhile, therefore I devote myself to these processes that can soothe; where mind, body and land can combine like a song."

Please visit Leah's website at Leah Bowring,  to learn more about her, where you will be amazed and enchanted by her many varied ceramic works of art. You may contact her at lbowmarie@gmail.com.

Leah also has an upcoming show, the  2015 Winter Exhibition at the  Sager Bradis Gallery in Columbia, Mo. The Opening reception: January 1st.

Thank you to my Family, Friends, and Followers who Support The Arts.

Please leave a comment as they make my day!

Sign up for email alerts or bloggers can list me on your blogroll to receive updates on my latest features!

I also want to thank my friend Joni of Cote de Texas for her help in fixing an issue with my site that I thought would never be resolved! Joni you are the best!

xoxo

Karena

The Arts by Karena

Artist William Glackens

Cape Cod Pier 1908

This astonishing monograph accompanies the first major retrospective  of William Glackens works of art, at The   Nova Southeastern University’s Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, February 23–June 1, 2014. Then the exhibit will travel to Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, July 20–October 13, 2014, and finally The Barnes in Philadelphia from November 8th 1024 to February 2 2015

In a richly illustrated volume  we are provided a comprehensive introduction to William Glackens (1870-1938), not only an important American realist painter, one of the liveliest and most influential painters of the early twentieth century. Glackens was a  founder of the Ashcan School, along with painters such as Robert Henri and John Sloan. He was very crucial to the introduction of modern art in the United States through his collaboration with Albert C. Barnes and his championing of landmark exhibitions of American and European avant-garde art. 

Traveling to Europe with Barnes in 1912, they returned with works by Renoir, Picasso, Pissaro, Van Gogh, Cezanne and others, thus beginning the world renowned Barnes Collection of Art

The Ashcan School was an artistic movement during the early 20th Century. This group of artists often produced works depicting scenes of daily life in New York City. The most famous artists working in this style included Robert Henri (1865–1929), George Luks (1867–1933),William Glackens (1870–1938), John Sloan (1871–1951), and Everett Shinn (1876–1953), Several of these men met while studying with  the renowned realist Thomas Anshutz at  The Philadelphia  Academy of the Fine Arts.  Several also worked together as illustrators during this time period.

William and Glenna Glackens 1914

The finest of his works spanning over a fifty-year career, includes paintings previously unknown to the general public, are reproduced in this magnificent tome including intimate nudes, portraits, and figure studies to vivid still lifes, vibrant street scenes, and landscapes, in which he captured people and their surroundings with matchless spontaneity and spirit. The book features essays by important scholars examining the artist's relationship with French painting, his social observation and interest in costume, his depiction of women, and his role as a tastemaker.

This is the first all inclusive survey of William Glackens in nearly half a century, and this exhibition brings together 45 paintings and 20–25 works on paper from public and private collections throughout the United States. Glackens’s influential career spanned five decades and this exhibition will enlighten  a new generation with the breadth of his oeuvre. Glackens reveals through his art his delightful passion for life, as well as his cache of refined, painterly techniques. Several important canvases and works on paper will be on public view for the first time.

A Spring Morning in Washington Square  by William Glackens, New York 1910 over for Colliers Weekly Magazine

Artist's Daughter in Chinese Costume 1918

Glackens urged his younger friends and students to paint in the robust, loose, and unrefined  spirit of his favorite poet, Walt Whitman, and to be unafraid of affronting the current tastes. He believed that working-class and middle-class urban settings would provide better material for modern painters than drawing rooms and salons.

Girl with Apple 1909-1910

There is both an intensity and luminosity to his palette. When I look at many of Glacken's paintings, there seems to be a slight veil that beckons one to peek behind and see into the real glory.

Bathers at Bellport

The sea was an important part of Glacken's life and a recurring setting for many works of art. His bold bright and spontaneous brushwork is breathtaking.

While you may see influences of Monet, Cezanne, Hopper, and others, Glacken's style stands out in a most compelling and beckoning way that you will love!

Images and publication courtesy of Skira Rizzoli

You may purchase William Glackens , Edited by Avis Berman, Contribution by Elizabeth Thompson Colleary, Heather Campbell Coyle, Judith F. Dolkart and Alicia G. Longwell  at Rizzoli New York

Thank you to my many friends and followers who support The Arts 

xoxo

Karena

The Arts by Karena

Renowned Painter Allan Chow-The 2013 Artists Series

Introducing artist Allan Chow whose paintings will light up your world!

Enjoy this insightful and poignant interview. 

Allan Chow (born April 22, 1979) is a Malaysian Chinese born landscape painter who currently resides and owns a studio in the United States. Allan received his BFA in Illustration from the Kansas City Art Institute.

 Mentored by Illustrators, Allan worked as a freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer during his twenties while he experimented with paint after dark. He spent many hours after work struggling to find his identity as a Fine Artist. However, his natural attraction to Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism inspired him to develop a modern interpretation of landscape paintings with a palette knife. 

Allan's hints of Southeast Asian culture manifests through his exuberant colors, bold paint strokes and irresistible textures that set him apart from his peers and made his paintings one of the most preferred and collected in the country today.

Kansas City ASB Bridge

1)       Allan, when did you first realize you had the desire to paint?

During my third year as an Illustration major, I was desperately trying to give myself some painting exercises to learn about color theory. On top of my Illustration assignments, I remember staying up till 5am every night working on paintings of my native country, Malaysia. 

It was pure Art for Art sake. I didn’t care if it sold or not. I painted because I wanted to learn how to mix paint. I turned to paintings by Monet, Van Gogh and Childe Hassam. I learn by borrowing their impressionistic color palette, style and incorporating them into my paintings. It was a series of ten paintings. That same series of paintings got me my first exhibition and also they got me into my first gallery representation two years later.

Morning View

 2)       What inspires you to begin a painting and what is your methodology?

It is such an emotional and moody process. I am most inspired to start a painting right after completing an emotionally draining painting that I spent the last month or two struggling with. This momentum happens usually in the middle of preparing a show of 30+ new paintings. If I plan a painting from start to finish, I am less excited at the end and will most likely lose interest. 

To avoid this, I paint whenever I feel like an idea is ready and I keep my drawings very minimal. I just push paint around until something speaks to me. I work through mistakes and disappointments but embrace happy accidents and build on one victory at a time. Eventually, everything will work out. Tons of texture and layers of colors for visual interest is present. Most importantly, the final result is appreciated so much more.

 

Morning Missouri

3) Bright color and the palette knife are two signatures of your style. Would you tell our readers more about that? Oh and I do love your images of the Kansas City area.

Allan painting at the easel at a Charity Event

I was particularly drawn to muted and dark color palettes a decade ago while I was studying some impressionists’ work. The more I painted, my natural instincts and personality gradually reflect in my work. I am an optimistic person. I want my paintings to be bold and filled with energy affecting people positively. This explains the color palette I am using today. 

As far as my style, it is constantly evolving and hard to explain. It really is a work in progress. It changes when either a new subject matter or medium presents itself. I have learned to let go and refuse to control much these days. The more I let go, the more I discover. 

I know I love texture so a palette knife made sense. The difficulty of controlling paint with a knife forced myself to pay less attention to details. It really freed my wrists and encouraged myself to work more with my entire body. The deal breaker for abandoning a brush was that I didn’t have to wash them and I no longer have to smell turpentine.

Rocks at Rodeo Beach III

4)       Are there artists or others that you admire or consider mentors in your journey?

Allan in his Studio

Absolutely! I admire Impressionists such as Childe Hassam and Monet the most. Some of my favorite Artists are John Singer Sargent, Edward Hopper, Aaron Siskind, Franz Kline, Howard Pyle, N.C Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth to name a few.  

One of my mentors in the past is an Illustrator who paints. He gave me the confidence to do both. My most recent mentor is a Graphic Designer and Instructor. He is probably the most giving and committed person I know. They both have different strengths that I admire a ton. I aspire to be the best I can be as an Artist. At the same time, it is important to be humble and inspire others.

Best of Show Winner -Over Majestic Hills

  5)       You are a world renowned artist and have paintings in many important collections. What are some of the corporate and private collections where your art is featured?

You are too kind. Some collections that I could think of are H&R Block, Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Intercontinental Hotel, BKD; Lewis, Rice and Fingerish Law Firm, the University of Kansas Medical Center; Russell Stover Candies; and private collections in Kansas City, Seattle, California, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Dusk at Broadway

       6)  I understand you take consignments and have amazing art available.How may readers contact you who are interested in your art? 

I can be reached at info@allanchow.com. You can also contact me through my website at (http://www.allanchow.com)

Safety of the Sunset

Kansas City Skyline

7)       Finally what would you tell the person who feels that creative spark to paint?

As a hobby, I recommend everyone to try to paint for fun and be free. I believe as human beings, being creative is innate. Find a medium that you enjoy and just have fun. Professionally, I would advice young Artists to know the difference between TALENT and SKILL. Talent isn’t enough to get you by. The skilled are those who are willing to persevere and risk it all to pursue your passion. Being a skilled Artist will ensure long-term success and personal fulfillment.

Thank you so much Allan. It has been such a pleasure to include you in The 2013 Artists Series.

Dear Readers and Followers I hope you will visit Allan's website ...and come comment on what works of art are your favorites. Allan also does still life paintings as well as his renowned landscapes.

Your support of the art world makes this world and our communities a better place to live!

Thank you with all of my heart for your encouragement.  

Look forward to the next Artist in our 2013 Artists Series. 

xoxo

Karena

Art by Karena

Images Courtesy of Allan Chow Art 

Introducing Paul Dorrell, Gallery Owner, Art Dealer and Author

Paul Dorrell is the Author of the updated and revised book, Living the Artist's Life.

He has been the owner of The renowned Leopold Gallery in Kansas City since 1991, a Fine Art Dealer  and Artist's Representative.

I hope you enjoy our conversation below and images from some of the artist's he represents.

His book truly can apply not only to Artists, also Writers, to Designers, Architects, really any Entrepreneur who realizes that one must follow their dreams. and what it takes to do just that!  Living the Artist's Life is bold, part memoir, and even humorous at times.

Event at the Leopold Gallery

1)      Paul, I understand that you opened The Leopold Gallery to support your true avocation of being a writer. Were you surprised that indeed you became a renowned Gallery Owner, Art Dealer and Author?  

Very surprised, as that was certainly not the plan--but such is life for most of us.

Allen Chow

 2)     You have represented major artists; painters, sculptors, fine glass blowers. Do you develop an innate sense that an aspiring artist will become successful? What do you look for?  

From some I look for outrageousness, others a firm rooting in great artistic traditions, others a profound sense of abstraction or craft.  Of course I can’t always tell who will succeed, but my staff and I usually have a fairly good sense about it. 

Kansas University Medical Center

 3)     How do you help artists turn their left brains on to be able to deal with the business side of being an artist?  

We just guide them, step by step, in ways that don’t intrude on their creativity but that do enhance their career.  I mean if I can do it, as a writer, anybody can.

Presentation and Book Signing

4)     In your book, “Living the Artist’s Life”, you very candidly describe the highs and lows, the extreme struggles and the huge successes that you, yourself have experienced. Why is this so relevant to the working artist?  

Because the vast majority of artists often feel, at various times, that they’re failing—as do most people.  I feel it’s important that they realize how common that experience is, as that can be reassuring.

5)     Which are some of the Art Installations you are most proud of?  

All the big works—blown glass, paintings, sculptures—at H&R Block, University of Kansas Hospital, Saint Luke’s Hospital, and the Overland Park Convention Center.  Also the National D-Day Memorial.

Portion of H & R Block Installation

6)     You describe corporations today as being like The Medici’s of the Renaissance Art Period. Can you tell us more about that? How does this affect communities?  

Corporations have resources for buying art that far outstrip what most individuals can spend at this time in history.  This means they can have a huge impact on the culture of their region if they’ll work with regional artists—and not try to dictate the art.  That is somewhat similar to what the Medici family did in Italy.

Derrick Breidenthal

 

7)      Paul you have had many travels, far and wide. What compelled you to come back to Kansas City to work and raise your family? 

 This place has always been home to me, and I was acutely aware when we opened, in 1991, that it felt culturally inferior to the larger cities on the two coasts, as though people here were not as talented.  I wanted to help put an end to that, as it was impeding the cultural and artistic growth of the region.  My clients, both corporate and private, have helped us in that mission.

Matt Kirby

8)     Finally what words of wisdom would you impart to the artist of any age or genre?   

Never give up, never give up, never give up.

Thank you so much Paul for taking the time with us!

Paul's New Book, Living the Artist's Life

I hope you have enjoyed this interview with Paul. He has made a huge impression on the landscape, the recognition of art and its importance in our world!

You can visit Paul's Leopold Gallery website at LeopoldGallery.com 

This is an International Giveaway, so please, all can Enter

1) Enter for an opportunity to win a signed copy of Living The Artist's Life by visiting The Leopold Gallery site and tell us an artist who inspires you! There are many not shown here!

2) Extra entries by Liking Leopold Gallery on Facebook, Tweeting or Posting on your own site!

You may also order a copy or copies (great Gift for an Artist Friend or yourself)

at Living the Artist's Life

The winner will be chosen on December 16th at Midnight EST!

Thanks to all of my Friends,Family, and Followers!

xoxo

Karena

Art by Karena