Folk Artist Missy Vining (Jaime Grant)

Missy Vining is a woman whom I went to highschool with. We were acquainted again in a church I joined. Missy paints for lesiure and during worship in church. She says, "it is a creative outlet for stress". 90% of her painting is done during church and she paints the way the music/moment she is in makes her feel. I have watched her paint during church one time and you can see the love she has for GOD...... It is a free painting while singing and lightly touched strokes here and there.....

Artist: Paul Bielaczyc (emily moore)

1. Name: Paul Martin Bielaczyc

2. Did you go to school for art or do you have any formal training? : My undergrad degree from Vanderbilt University is in Art History and Computer Science with a minor in Studio Art. I applied to grad school in Studio Art, and was promptly rejected. So I got into school at Vandy for a master's in Computer Science. When I graduated in 2004, my brother, Michael, had started up our company, and I joined him. I have been doing this ever since, and I love what I do.I have been drawing, doodling, whatever all my life. And other than a few classes in college, most of what I know and do is from trial and error.

3. Why do you do what you do (why do you make art?): Well, I make art as part of my business, which sounds awful, but I have a talent and because of how my business operates, it gives me a reason to spend time to make new art. It is very difficult to make money off your art, and I find the most precious thing right now to be my time. But since my job sends me places where I can also sell and show off my art, it means that I can justify spending a ton of time working on something that I care about. I don't really make art for companies anymore, I don't do illustration work, I make art for me, stuff that I think of, and stuff that is in my head that needs to come out. The pieces that I make are pieces that I am inspired to make, and pieces usually that I feel will be received well by the people who I have spoken to at the shows about my art and what it means to them.

4. What is the meaning behind your work? :Many of my pieces are basic illustrations of weird or humorous things. They don't have meaning, but instead have narratives or stories within them. I do have a series of pieces called my Gesture Series, which is a series in which I start with a one word concept, and represent my interpretation of that word using the imagery of hands. I have about 6-7 pieces in the series now, and plan to continue it for quite some time. I just spoke with a collector of mine who inspired me to make 2 new pieces in that series, which I plan to work on this winter.

5. Where do you receive your inspiration? :Everywhere... I know that is vague, but I will see something, in a game, in a movie, or in life and I think about how it may work into a piece of art. I am working on a piece right now about personal demons, and it was because I walked through an alleyway and pictured this creepy monster attacking a person who was not the nicest of characters.

6. Do you have a Favorite piece of your own personal art? :Nightmare is my pride and joy. That piece has won a variety of art awards around the country including the Chesley Award (the Oscar's of fantasy/science fiction art). It was one of the first pieces that I completed after grad school, so it is the start of my entire art career... now if I could only make another piece as strong and imposing as it.

7. Do you have a favorite piece of art by someone else? :Not really. I have a bunch of pieces from other fantasy artists lying around the house, but I don't know if I have a favorite. And I can't think of any "famous" real art that I admire more than others. I did get to go to Italy a few years ago, and I went to the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's stuff was alright, but Raphael's art blew my mind, especially these, Stanza della Segnatura. When I saw them, just the details, the colors, it blew my mind. And I saw quite a bit of classic art in Italy, and these paintings really struck me. I actually missed them the first time we walked through, and when we got to the end (which is also the beginning), I said to the people I was with, I have to find these, and we sorta jogged back through in order to find these.

8. Is there an artist you admire? :Of contemporary fantasy artists, Todd Lockwood is pretty amazing. Darren Waterson had some work at the First Center in Nashville, and I really liked his stuff. I encounter much more fantasy work than most (obviously) so my choice of artists that I see on a regular basis is a little strange compared to what is taught in contemporary art courses.

9. If so, who is it and why? : I just really admire detail and the small things that make you think, how did they do that, and those artists are just very meticulous.