The Art of Sandra Perlow

Sandra Perlow (1940 - present) is a contemporary abstract artist, currently living in Chicago, who has been creating art for over forty-five years. Sandra works in multi-media creating a collage on top of monoprints or woodcuts using a combination of various mediums which include acrylic, gouache, or oil stick.

(Perlow, Sandra. Must Come Again. c. 2012. collage on canvas.)
Sandra was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois where she earned her Bachelor’s of Art Education (B.A.E.) and her Master’s of Fine Art (M.A.) from the school of the art institute of Chicago in which she mainly focused on drawing and painting. She also received an M.A. from the Illinois Institute of Design. Perlow then began to teach herself at the school of the art institute of Chicago.

(Perlow, Sandra. Apart from That. c. 2012. collage on canvas.)
Rhythm is the key property of Perlow’s multi-media paintings. She works in shapes and colors, inspired by architecture or landscape. She draws inspiration from daily life, people, and museums.

(Perlow, Sandra. Tangled. c. 2012. collage on canvas.)
“Perlow’s creative process is an energetic shuffling and sorting of memory, text, sound, and image. There is spontaneity in her studio practice as the surrounding loop sets up a syncopated tempo as she works on several canvases at one time. The cacophony of visual signs is also found in the layers of images on her studio table: a landscape of books and papers from a visual library from Chinese brush painting Rotella’s decollates or the works of Philip Guston. The creative impulse is immediate and improvisational as Perlow pulls paper, motif, and gesture onto the surface of the picture plane.” (Sandra Perlow.net, 2012).

(Perlow, Sandra. Draw Into. c. 2012. collage on canvas.)
At the age of seventy-two years old, Sandra is full of energy, has a wonderful sense of humor, and has unparalleled lust for life, which I believe is definitely reflected in her work, and her work is much appreciated here.

Enjoy :)

References

• Sandra Perlow.net

The Art of Ikrano Theodorus

Ikrano Theodorus is a contemporary abstract painter, he uses bold color and interesting imperfect geometric shapes to express himself. He describes the purpose of his art in the following statement. "I am a self-taught artist with a wholehearted commitment and dedication to master the art of painting, which I realize will be a lifelong learning and striving in effort to achieve even the smallest measure of perfection."

 
(Theodorus, Ikrano. The Difference A Woman Make.
c. 2008. Oil on canvas.)

"Art, as for me, is a skill to communicate the sense of beauty that comes to my experience of this world. The sense of beauty, as I believe, is one of the primal aspirations of all human beings, and what do I intend with the work of art, is to preserve my aspiration as well as my experience of beauty."

 
(Theodorus, Ikrano. Geometry. c. 2008.
Oil on canvas.)

"So, the main concern in my works is to create a harmony of shapes and colors; inspired by my unconscious interaction with nature or surroundings that somehow, by inexplicably way, make up the sense of beauty. It applies not in my abstract or decorative paintings only, but in my realist paintings as well."

 
(Theodorus, Ikrano. Built-up to Sky. c. 2007.
Oil on canvas.)

"I hope my pieces of art will serve to any viewer, more or less in the way they were intended to."

 
(Theodorus, Ikrano. The Masculine. c. 2008.
Oil on canvas.)

You can purchase one of Theodorus' original paintings at gallerytoday.com for a very reasonable price. I love his work, it's bold and beautiful and he is much appreciated here! 

Enjoy :) 

Reference: Gallery Today

The Art of Mari Giddings

Mari Elsa Giddings is a contemporary artist who was born in Washington, D.C. in 1959. She grew up in Maryland, New York, and then studied art at Phoenix College in Arizona with Meryl Mahaffey and Allen Dutton. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Arizona State University in 1984, where she worked under master printers, such as Dan Britten and Wayne Kimball.


(Giddings, Mari. Satori I.)
In 1986 she became chief assistant to master printer Robert A. Devoe at the Phoenix Art Press. Shortly after, Mari opened her own studio in the Verde Valley in northern Arizona where she happily painted landscapes for several years. In 1991 Mari moved back to Phoenix to become the Art Director of Phoenix Art Press.


(Giddings, Mari. Satori II.)
Giddings states, "My art helps me to see beyond culturally learned forms, breaking down perceptions that are so deeply ingrained, so taken for granted that they seem real, the only possible way to see. For me, successful art destroys the obvious connections by which we construct our realities and makes new connections, then it destroys those connections, too, realizing infinite alternatives. Art is never a finished product, but a moving, living, immediate process which begins again with every painting ... and with every viewing."


(Giddings, Mari. Arrangement II. )
In 1995 Mari co-founded the Planet Art Group in Phoenix, Arizona. Mari works in a variety of styles, from naturalistic landscapes to cubist abstraction, yet she sees no contradiction in these approaches.

Giddings says, "Neither strict representation nor abstraction is simply imitations of reality, but tools for the construction and reflection of an artist’s individual experience. As infants, we learn to objectify our individual perceptions through relating with others. In the same way, art allows us to conceptualize subjective experience by turning it into an object that can be shared. In this sense, all art, abstract and representational, is simultaneously self-portraiture and a mob scene, intimate and public."


(Giddings, Mari. Well Being I.)
Her artwork is extremely elegant and reflects the color tones of the Sonoran desert. Mari Giddings is a wonderful contemporary artist and her work is much appreciated here!

Enjoy :)