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Artists live and breathe creativity, considering it an essential part of their lives. Their stories narrate how their artistic journey shaped their identity and who they are today.
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE
Interview by Susan Stiles
StoryCorps founder Dave Isay has said that a person’s calling is a combination of doing something you’re good at, feeling appreciated about this work, and seeing how your work improves people’s lives. For many people, it takes a bit to reach this magical equation. For Marsha Brown, knowing her calling came early: “I think I’ve always been an artist. I think I just am temperamentally that kind of a person, an expressive person, and art always came kind of naturally to me. Everyone has things that they are better at than other things. I just found that sooner rather than later.”
Art propelled Marsha early in life and she pursued studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the University of Pennsylvania, and also the University of Michigan. Along the way, she received advice that has stayed with her over the years: just keep working, just keep going. And so she has and now works in a variety of media as a painter, a sculptor, and a ceramic artist. She has also seen other artists grow and blossom by keeping to the discipline of keeping going, even if their first attempts are not what they wished them to be. This drive also served her well when, for several years, she ran a successful advertising business. As she says, “Whatever it is that pushes me on to be an artist was the same quality that helped me in business and selling.” The advertising business taught her the importance both of understanding what people want and conveying it accurately. She sees parallels in how she approaches her art: “You have to look at something, understand what it is intrinsically, and determine whether you can express it.”
Movement is central to Marsha’s art. Her portraits are rich in colors and texture and harmony, bringing each individual to life in a unique way. In her landscapes, the clouds are moving, sometimes angry, sometimes serene. Even the still lifes—and she is doing more and more still lifes currently—are dynamic. Maybe it is the way that she varies her brushstrokes, giving all of her paintings a kaleidoscopic effect and requiring the viewer to follow different paths that wind about through each painting. Her sculptures, likewise, seem alive. These are real people caught in the act of contemplation.
Mostly, Marsha likes to experiment with different media. Currently, watercolors and small sculptures are a large part of her output. She is finding that she’s incorporating nature more into her art because, “[it] just breathes. And there really is so much variety and beauty and movement in nature.”
Although Marsha does not base her style on anyone else’s, she does cite Alice Neal and Ai Weiwei as inspirations in portraiture and sculpture, respectively. Art is personal for Marsha. She is less inclined to pursue certain themes or topics than to observe her world and create something based on her personal response to it. Thus, her family and places that are meaningful to her show up in her work.
What makes Marsha satisfied with a piece? It comes back to expression: “I have to feel it’s important and I want to express it. I want to feel that this is what I want to say, that this is my legacy. I want to enjoy looking at it, too, and seeing that I expressed what I hoped to express. And once I get there, then it’s no longer about my ego.” Over the years, she’s also developed a philosophy of her own that she applies to her art: “Accept yourself. Accept what you’re going to say and what you’re going to express.”
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Susan Stiles, Ph.D
Freelance Writer, Poet, Author of the Aging Mastery Playbook
Art Reviewer @ mosaicARTs Gallery
Sculpture, Found Objects Art
““I make art simply because I have to.”
2/2024
Interview by Susan Stiles
On any given weekend, you might find Ruth Lozner at a thrift store or an estate sale, not necessarily looking for anything in particular, but rather letting her eyes scan for objects that she finds visually interesting. A metronome? Yes, perhaps. Some antlers? Why not? A 19th-century wagon jack? But, of course!
If the object is beautifully designed and triggers an idea or memory, it will likely find a home in Ruth’s studio: “My studio looks like the inside of a cabinet of curiosities filled with wonderful objects and ephemera. These are my ‘art supplies’. These objects re-assemble themselves in my head. With the construction of these various object-combinations, I give them new purpose and meaning.” The end result of her endeavors are sculptures that honor the objects in and of themselves—their intrinsic functionality and aesthetics—but also give them renewed life with new stories to tell. Some pieces are an assemblage of these found objects; others require significant carpentry work. Often, a piece reveals itself to her instantly, as was the case of the wagon jack that became a horse’s head with another found object body and a horsehair brush as its tail (pun intended!).
Ruth’s assemblages are narrative. She is, at heart, a maker and storyteller. “I express myself in imagery rather than words. Inspired by the original meaning and form of the found objects, the sculptures transform those objects into something quite different”.
Ruth’s sculptures are whimsical, even surreal with visual puns hidden within the constructed components. Those little winks, she hopes, will make people smile once they—after puzzling over the object for a bit—recognize the back story. Not surprisingly, she loves the art of the Dada movement, as well as the Fluxus Group, and others whose work focuses on concept and meaning. “I look to those artists who are brave and thoughtful, who, by being personal, are universal.”
These found object pieces can bring out Ruth’s playful and humorous side, but there is a more serious, even “ponderous,” nature to her other work, particularly her paintings in which she explores deeper and perhaps threatening life issues. Recognizing that these are expansive and sensitive topics, she addresses them by using visual metaphors. The paintings might be both beautiful yet troubling the more one looks at them. But she feels it’s in telling the total story that is important.
Ruth’s studio is her ‘happy place’ and she is there nearly every day. Art has been a part of how she has defined herself from early on in life. It’s been her go-to activity since the day when her kindergarten teacher first gave her a paintbrush. “I make art simply because I have to,” she says. Graduating with a BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University, she went on to further her art studies at American University. She worked for several years as an illustrator with the New York Times then went on to a fulfilling teaching career. She is currently Professor Emerita of Art and Design from the University of Maryland, College Park.
In addition to continuing to teach in her studio, she is working on some new projects including collaborative painting with designer, Kenzie Raulin. The two artists talk through concepts and visual solutions in real time. Their unique process of working together on the same canvas at the same time has been a treasured new direction.
In general, Ruth feels that she has reached a point in her life—and her artistic life—where she wants to simplify and pare things down to essentials. She finds that she can say what she wants to say—tell the stories she wants to tell—with fewer components while still doing what she thinks artists do best: being “mirrors” for the viewer, putting in tangible form, the thoughts and emotions that might be buried deeply inside.
Susan Stiles, Ph.D
Freelance Writer, Poet, Author of the Aging Mastery Playbook
Art Reviewer @ mosaicARTs Gallery
“I really am still fascinated by the encaustic because it’s so difficult and it’s somewhat unpredictable.”
Encaustic painting
12/2023
Interview by Susan Stiles
Linda Lowery is a modern-day alchemist. She heats up pigmented wax until it forms a liquid, then applies this hot wax to her canvas—usually raw wood—using a media called encaustic painting. This method of painting comes with risks. For one thing, the wax doesn’t always stay in one place; rather, it moves freely on the wood creating new shapes, new characteristics. The designs that result from this movement can be interesting, but because Linda paints portraits, this movement also poses a challenge. “It’s a challenge, especially if you’re painting something realistic,” she says. “If you’re doing an abstract, it can be fun to just watch the colors move around. Maybe an image presents itself that you like. But if I’m painting a person’s glasses, for example, I don’t want the wax to move around too much. I have to scrape it off carefully and work until I can get the edges that I need.” The other challenge of encaustic painting is that the wax dries quickly. “As soon as you’ve got it on your brush, you’ve got to get it right on your surface or it’ll be too hard to really brush.”
But the rewards of painting with wax are worth the risks. Linda loves how she can build up layers and layers, developing undertones and texture. “Once you get a layer of wax down, then you heat it or fuse it,” she explains. “Initially you’re fusing the wax into the wood and then each layer you’re fusing to the layer under it. I use a hot air gun. Some people use torches. I like to use enough heat so that the top layer melts or gets smooth. You can see the wax kind of bloom up and then it’s absorbing that upper layer. I like to end up with a smooth, shiny layer so that it’s more translucent and it’s pretty too. You just build up layer after layer until you have the picture that you want.”
Another reward of painting with wax for Linda is the wonderful mix of colors that results, producing unexpected and beautiful effects. Additionally, these paintings have a depth to them that isn’t always possible with other painting techniques. “If you look at a painting from the side, you can see it’s almost three-dimensional. It’s very, very shallow relief, but you can still see the picture in a slight relief, which is very interesting.”
Linda majored in art in college and also has a Master of Fine Arts degree. She began painting portraits in earnest after a career as both a computer programmer and manager. Why portraits? For Linda, portraits allow her to get closer to human expressions, human experiences, and human emotions. The paintings in this show were part of a series on young people of different nationalities. Linda hopes that, despite the differences in the individuals portrayed, viewers will see their commonalities and realize they share similarities in their hopes and dreams and experiences.
Inspiration comes to Linda from art that is emotionally impactful. “I think I’m inspired by theater and music because that can really pull out your emotions, and I’m trying to get that same kind of impact with my art,” she said. Artists such as Jenny Seville and John Singer Sargent are also inspirations. And her own family provided inspiration both for her foray into portraits and her decision to use encaustic. “I was influenced by pictures of my son right after he was born. You could really see the difficulty he had been through just to be born. Those pictures had a lot of emotion and I really got into painting newborns who were mostly crying. And that was a big influence on my art because I was painting in oil at the time and I wanted to get a more translucent looking skin for the baby’s face so I started working in encaustic.”
Linda is a member of several local co-op organizations like Alexandria Art League, Arlington Artists Alliance, Falls Church Arts, and Del Ray Artisans. Linda has a number of upcoming projects including a collaboration with the Washington Gay Men’s Chorus. One of her paintings, entitled “See Me,” was selected as part of a show in which paintings will be set to music and dance. The performance is slated for June 2024 at the Kennedy Center. Another current project involves painting portrait pairs on wood.. Her vision is to create a visual dialogue between the two portraits. When asked whether she would consider exploring other painting techniques, Linda responded “I really am still fascinated by the encaustic because it’s so difficult and it’s somewhat unpredictable.” For now, at least, she’ll continue being an alchemist.
Susan Stiles, Ph.D
Freelance Writer, Poet, Author of the Aging Mastery Playbook
Art Reviewer @ mosaicARTs Gallery
MosaicARTs Gallery is currently closed on May 24th 2024 & May 25th 2024
