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.

Artist Interview (Gates)

J. Scott

-Questions-
1. What sparked you interest in art?

2. When did you start experimenting with art?

3. What type of artist would you call yourself?

4. Do you have any training?

5. How do you create your art?

6. Who is your favorite artist?

7. What is your favorite movement/style/kind of art?

8. What influences your artwork?

9. Do you experiment with different forms of art?

10. What is your favorite piece of art?

11. Would you work with any material outside the norm?
If so what would it be?

12. Would you construct a mural?
If so of who or what?
- Answers-
1. The calmness of art sparked an interest for me. I find peace of mind in doing art.

2. I started experimenting with art when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I would visit with my father and draw when I was around him.

3. I would call myself a cartoonist. Although I have a bit of a range in art, I was always a cartoonist at heart.

4. I do have some training. I had 2 years of commercial art in high school. Nothing beyond that.

5. Sometimes I create art by request. Most times I have an idea and start sketching a basic pencil outline.

6. My favorite artist. Wow. I have a few. Without thinking about it, Charles Schultz. Jim Davis is another. And me.

7. I like anything with color. But sometimes black and white is just enough. I love graffiti. It speaks out loud. There are so many styles from basic "tagging" to pieces that are so entwined and colorful that you would need the person who created it to figure out what it says and means.

8. Humor influences my artwork. Truth also influences my artwork. So do other artists work.

9. Every now and then I do a portrait. They're really time consuming. No painting. Not in a long time. Most of the stuff I've been doing lately has all been touched up on a computer. I would like to do some artwork with wood. My 6th grade art teacher showed us how to make wooden portraits. We used different textured staining to add effect. Mr. Graves class. He was awesome.

10. My favorite piece of art is whatever I'm working on at the time.

11. I would like to do some paper mache stuff. Maybe fool around with some stained glass art. That would be hot.

12. If I constructed a mural it would be adults of all races and working classes holding hands with proud looks on there faces. I hate the racial barriers that continue to go on in this world. The reason the people would be adults in the mural is because children learn from their parents who are most of the time adults. It's an image that should be shown and taught to all children. Unity of all races. We are one.

Self-Portrait-Amanda Gordy

This is my self-portrait taken in front of the sign in Senoia, that I decided to draw because I liked the picture.

Nadia's Self Portrait

My self portrait is basically a collage of everything that represents me. Im half jamaican which explains why i have the jamaican flag in the middle of the collage. I love gold jewelry. I am a Gemini and im from connecticut. My collage shows some of my favorite things as well. There is also a picture of one of my tattoos. Im just real girly and like girly and glamourous things.

For my self-portrait, I first took a picture of myself with a camera. After I printed out the picture in black and white, I colored over it with oil pastels. The blues and reds represent cool colors, which signifies that I am a laid-back person who is flexible in most of my decisions in life.

Self Portrait By Caitlin Carver

This picture represents everything that I see when I look at myself. I see myself through a mirror, whatever the mirror is telling me is what I see. The bright colors around me represent the navie tendencies I have. I believe that no matter how bad people are that everyone has good intentions, everyone is good at heart and jsut does bad things. This usually comes back to slap me in the face, but I love being optimistist about other people.

On the other hand, it not what I see in myself. I beleive that I am dull and thatI have nothing good to offer. When i get sad I immediately go back to the girl I was in 7th grade that always got made fun of becaue I was not smart enough, skinny enough, of pretty enough. I also do not pay attention to my face when I am looking at myself. I only see my body and base my day on the weigh my body looks. That is why my face is pixiled, because to me, my face is not what makes or breaks my day.

My picture does not show all of me, because when I look at myself, I do not believe that no one will ever see all of me, so this represents a part of me that one will ever know