The silence of the streets covered with snow, the outdoor games despite the frost, flower buds that are peeking out from tree branches: looking at Suzette Dushi’s digital photographs means exploring the deepest and most emotional components of winter. Winter subtracts everything from nature: light, bright colors, vitality. Despite this, the artist brings out these qualities in her images, capturing the joyful and nostalgic aspects of this time of the year.
Suzette Dushi is the Gold Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
The lake is cold
Fog qualifies the outline of the trees–
pensées of foliage
exuded by the limbs
reveal the watery truth…
Try to imagine a lake in wintertime. A thick fog envelops the landscape, where the water, the ground, or the sky begins no longer recognizable. Paula Bonnell’s poem evokes this image. A sensation, Early Morning embodies all the mystery, the stillness, the silence of the winter season.
Paula Bonnell is the Gold Writer of the ArtAscent Winter call for writers. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
Inspiration is a word that resembles inhalation and that is what moves me to write — I’ve “breathed in an experience” that makes me want to create an artistic equivalent of what moved me, thereby sharing it with others. As a reader I often appreciate this gift when given to me by writers and they stimulate my desire to emulate good and even great literary work; the same was true in my photographic years.
About My Work
In any poem of mine that I value, there is always something “given” by what feels like an “other” — which is what made humans create the idea of a muse. My part in the transaction is to take what the muse gives me — typically a first line that comes unbidden into my mind—and see if I can follow it from there and arrive somewhere. When readers respond to something I’ve written, I feel completed and happy.
Dina Torrans explores the senses that nature can meet us with and create a place of wonder and reflection. Her sculptural details make you want to take a deeper look and still get lost in the simplicity of ideas. Dina works with nature’s found footage and draws inspiration from her environment. Her sculptures grab the audience’s attention and make us aware of the various relations we can have to our surroundings.
Dina Torrans is the Silver Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
I have found that in exploring the creative process, my artwork reflects various ideas and developments in my personal mythology. This process continues to inspire me to action and to dialoguing about our evolving world and times. It is one of my most valuable teachers.
I have had the pleasure of working with nature, bronze, clay, gypsum, cement, metal, marble, minerals, wood, found objects, colour and sound. I enjoy employing a variety of media in my works which often include combining two- and three-dimensional materials. My themes tend to be inspired by ideas about nature, our human belief systems, personal and planetary evolution, and our ultimate interconnectedness.
About My Work
A selection of writing by Dr. Mark Lipton, Professor in the College of Arts, University of Guelph:
“Dina’s works evoke a dream-like playfulness as they explore what it means to be alive. One gets a sense of being centered in the here and now with evocative hints of where we’ve been and where we’re going. Always thoughtful and full of play.
Dina delicately engages in acts of bricolage, playing with the meaning of found objects. Torn maps and sheet music, raw elements like bronze, copper, and stone, and an assortment of other mixed media such as feathers and children’s toys are transported to her world in ways that sculpt strong narratives. Each work is like looking into a microscope focused on an imaginary natural world. The strength of this mythology is enhanced by Dina’s ability to frame three dimensions on a two-dimensional plane. This sculpture, collage, chine-collé ruptures the viewer’s sense of perception by inviting an attention to detail to a creative process and a world of wonder.
For Dina, each work is a poem open to the viewer’s perspective. Yet acts of interpolation, where Dina’s focus attunes the viewer to her understanding of nature – real and imagined – are made brilliant by her delicate use of colour and shape. A variety of materials frame and create a backdrop either of loud, soft, or dynamic feelings, providing a glimpse into her kaleidoscopic world.
Typically associated with stillness and quietness, winter also embodies a veiled and bridled energy. That duality of the season intrigues and draws the attention of artists like Chris Brooks. The perfect allegory for that hidden potential of winter is an image of a river. With its surface frozen, that powerful flow continues beneath the ice.
Chris Brooks is the Bronze Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
In developing this collection, fine resin proved to be the ideal medium in having the unique ability to maintain fluid qualities as a solid. Each rock is hand-cast in resin and finished before positioning it in the composition. The ice is cast in sheets, cut to shape, and imbedded in the layers. Each piece consists of three to five layers, with each layer consisting of four to six unique tints of resin. Manipulating these tints creates depth and movement that becomes stationary as it solidifies. Reminiscent of fleeting natural experiences that are often a short distance away, the viewer’s movement animates the art as the light and refractions evolve.
About My Work
You are hours into a hike when you reach the river’s edge, and then seeing the water isn’t enough. Your nostrils flare as you inhale the cool cleansing aroma. You’re overcome with an urge to feel it. Off come the hiking boots. Socks strewn on the shoreline as you hop across the uneven rocks trying to get your pants rolled up to your knees. You pause at the shoreline, testing its qualities with your toes. With minor hesitation, you wade deeper, embracing its restorative briskness. It rushes against your calves and soothes your aching feet. Its temperature seems to rise, matching yours. The intention of these riverscapes is to ignite our tactile desire to connect with water, inspiring a consideration of the reciprocal commitment we have with water.
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
Scratchboard is a delicate process; you create by scratching away the ink. The more you scratch and the more repetitive you are, the less the surface remains the same. Humans create their societies in a similar way, they create by taking away the resources. Stripping the surface to create something new. This is often a destructive process that results in animals disappearing along with their habitats. I want to creatively re-engineer this process, to give these animals a new life, a new future out of the darkness.
About My Work
Scratchboard, by its very construction and purpose, is a very fragile medium – you create by taking away and any missed stroke could ruin what you have created so far. Humanity and its relation to nature is quite similar. Humans create their society by taking away, cutting down and stripping the resources to create their cities and culture. Their impact on the wildlife and habitats around them is deeply affected by this process, but also in how they build their culture, the stories told, and myths created. The perception of particular animals by humans due to their place in history can very well determine their livelihood. Are the animals viewed as a threat to humans, are they treasured for their fur or meat, do they have mythic properties on the black market, or are they perceived as a pest to be rid of? Does your pet have more inherent value than a wild creature? Creating expressive animal portraits with scratchboard creates a tenuous relationship between viewer and creature, where historical and cultural perceptions can deeply affect how they see the animal in front of them. The painstaking and slow process of creating the art is echoed by the careful approach that must be taken in examining some of the myths and perceptions humans have of these animals, and how that may affect conservation efforts. In this way I hope that by creating art I can improve the relationships of humans and the cities they live in with the wildlife surrounding them.
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Close Encounter
A marvel in the planetary world
of owls who weep
is your nervous laughter…
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
https://artascent.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ArtAscent_2021V4828.jpg450450ArtAscenthttps://artascent.com/images/ArtAscent-LogoHorPP.jpgArtAscent2021-04-13 16:22:122021-04-13 16:39:40Karla Linn Merrifield
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
As an artist, I have long been determined to follow my illustrious predecessors who’ve all made an impact on the human condition. Whether it is through surrealism, traditional means, or even abstraction, I strive to create works that move people.
Selecting a theme is a random process. I’m continually inspired by the world around me, by viewing works of art, or, in most cases, by nature itself.
Recently, I’ve gravitated to digital art. It’s quicker, allowing me to create more ideas with unlimited revisions. Nevertheless, creating art has been in my blood since I was a child, but I have also written numerous books on many topics.
About My Work
Having been fortunate to study at an art academy under Harold Stevenson, a protege of Norman Rockwell, most of my work features realism to some extent, even as I have ventured into the realms of surrealism or dabbled with abstraction.
With a reverence for the old masters of realism, surrealism, impressionism, and abstraction, I have attempted to express myself in various ways, exploring new horizons. However, I most often gravitate to surrealism. I believe the human imagination is what separates our species from the animal world, hence the human imagination is the most unique and the most limitless to explore. My fascination with the human imagination has found its way into my artwork and into most of my books, be they mysteries, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, or even children’s books. I hope my viewers and readers come away with something new and inspiring to keep the wheels of progress moving forward.
Near at hand, the mud
is black and oozy. The waters
do not disdain to silver it as
they return to the shore, angling
to enter the branches…
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
The truth is that I never know whether another poem will come to me. I have to wait, and also to be willing to engage with it immediately and intensely when it does arrive, then over a period of a week or two, reread the draft(s) and refine and improve it as much as possible. Valery said that a poem is never finished, only abandoned in despair, which suggests that the poet’s ambition exceeds their achievement to date.
About My Work
What I have to say about the work is rather dull stuff compared with the poems themselves. What some of the editors who have accepted my work for publication in the last year or two (which is extremely gratifying) have said is “we absolutely love” and then give the name of the piece they want to publish. These are people who read dozens, even hundreds of poems for every one they take, so this phrase is enormously encouraging. And each publication is gratifying in itself, especially when other work in the issue is well worth reading. More time and energy go into getting published as compared to the burst of composition, but it’s worth it so these literary offspring can be animated by the minds and sensibilities of readers.
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
Art is a very important part of my life, a way to express my views and feelings. It feeds my soul and allows seeing the world through the colors and shapes.
My daily life inspires me by exposing feelings, desires, and the need for aesthetics in everything around me, which in turn I express in my paintings by using the tools I love. I use birds as a means of expression, cranes in particular.
In my opinion, an artist is not just the one creating and exposing ideas. The most important part is to spread and share novel ideas among people, touching their hearts, wakening the strength in people to do good and push away humble feelings for those who are in doubt.
About My Work
I have always admired birds, especially cranes, their interrelationship, eloquent moves and dances that express their love and joy. When you look at cranes it seems like they have a soul close to human, that they feel, love, rejoice and grieve as we do, and know what loyalty, friendship and honour mean.
Each of my paintings conveys an inner melody, tells its own story, sends a message to everyone—it just has to be felt, heard. Then the birds, the ambassadors of my soul and feelings, will find the way to another’s heart and maybe let them feel and hear their own dream, and let it stretch out its wings, revive and fly.
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
About My Work
Miguel Barros’ art sways between harmony and conflict. He avoids the easy mirroring of the reality, but his modern spirit makes an “interior world” come to surface, showing its true colours and an insightful look upon life and the surrounding entities.
Each year, Miguel profits from his full dedication to art, refining his technique as well bringing more of himself as each new work is presented. His work has grown through the years in artistic sensibility and has become a reference in several places around the World.
Miguel’s paintings clearly reflect a fundamental connection with art. His work seems to be his soul handwriting a letter to the observer of his art, in a message full of emotions and intention that materialize into colours and apparently shapeless forms. If each one of us keeps an open spirit to Miguel’s work, it’s almost impossible to avoid a wave of warmth and pleasure coming from his paintings.
His work confirms Miguel’s talented skills, especially the way he uses old techniques in an original way to convey his vision of the world. Miguel’s thoughts, ideas, and concepts are full of passion and energy and are presented in a refreshing and clear way, though there is also a clear invitation to meditate on the mysteries of art and philosophy.
Miguel Barros’ works are in several public and private collections in several countries around the world, including Portugal, Angola, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, Canada, United States, India, Lebanon and Mozambique, Australia, Sweden, and South Africa.
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
Every series I create is triggered by a sensory response to a place, object, or situation. These responses, though occurring on a surface level, often trigger an association with past memories, emotions, and experiences. Drawing allows me to visually explore these connections, in an immediate and intimate way.
My work, often considered ominous both for its content and for its restricted palette of black against white, is anything but. Darkness, for me, is a place of healing, a quiet place. It is in darkness, that I feel I can be my most vulnerable, trusting. Darkness within my work is indicative of retreat. The light, by comparison, is indicative of new growth, energy, and understanding.
About My Work
Through her intimate and often mysterious work, Susan Fraser-Hughes takes her viewers on a journey, a journey that is slowly documenting her life, traversing between the past and the present as she gently attends to experiences and memories.
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
Eric Goldstein Biography
Vancouver-based Eric Goldstein’s long and productive career as a cinematographer has strongly influenced the art forms that he explores.
Eric has directed the photography on over 65 features and televised movies. Eric’s distinct cinematographic style has garnered numerous awards: including an Eastman Kodak Excellence Award; a Gemini Award; and several BC’s Leo Awards.
Eric honed his skills as a fine artist at Rhode Island School of Design. Throughout his filmmaking career Eric remained contemporary in the language of art with his metal sculpture, painting, commissioned furniture, and artistic fences. Currently, he is using mixed media to build canvases that are graphically influenced, and have strong, architectural rhythms.
“Ultimately, my painted frames express the same underlying concept that I strive for as a cinematographer: emotional narratives with kinetic energy.”
About My Work
By distilling the basic elements of colour, texture and line from the landscapes of my world, these abstract canvases endeavour to portray nature in motion, not as nature appears but as nature feels; unspoken, indescribable, and sometimes chaotic. Constructed with various coloured organic threads, acrylic medium, glass tile, and gold foil, my canvasses express strong architectural rhythms that endeavour to create “emotional narratives with kinetic energy.”
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
The door bursts open and in comes the cold, followed by a frantic young man, all waving arms and exasperation, glowing red in just a cotton shirt.
“Someone’s nicked my coat!”
The Sergeant contemplates him with eyes chilled by steady experience…
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see this in print, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
My purpose in art is not to produce a product but rather to generate thinking and emotions through the process of resistance, introspection, and contemplation. Batik is created with wax and interfering shapes that prevent dyes from penetrating the medium of choice. In photography, I am drawn to images which reflect lines, motion, and light. Art is organic and dynamic — it is always shifting, active, incomplete, and always becoming. It continuously invites me out to a much larger home than I can imagine belonging to in the first place.
About My Work
The process of batik involves hot wax applied to fabric, paper, or wood by various means. The wax seals the medium it encounters, so when dyes are introduced, they will only permeate those areas that contain no wax. The new dried, dyed areas are then also waxed to seal the new colour, more dye is added, and the process is repeated. The wax is then removed by ironing through newsprint and if necessary, by dry-cleaning. I use Procion MX dyes, well known for their depth and longevity of colour. Commissions welcome!
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see this in print, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
As an artist, I work hard and enjoy creating paintings that express both to me and to others the beauty in nature that remains in our world to explore. I often find my inspiration through my hikes in nature and photograph the views which I then recreate. With my recent works, I try to express life to influence the styles, designs, and emotions I display on my canvas.
About My Work
Living overseas has provided me with much inspiration in a different climate and to apply beautiful seascapes to canvas. My works have evolved within the last year as I’ve tried new ways of creating different styles and I have learned more with every piece. My current paths lead to a range of seascapes, landscapes, and floral scenes. As a self-taught artist, I find my skills evolving toward my own uniqueness. I work with a variety of mediums, acrylics, and varnishes, challenging myself to create new art pieces and to improve my skills. I take my time and work hard to achieve my goals, finding new techniques of my own as an artist continually unfolding. My love for nature has brought me to my roots in my current piece, displaying peacefulness, life, and clarity. I dedicate myself to developing as an artist to the best of my ability, and to enjoying every bit of it.
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
My approach to painting relies on a kind of radical presence where I open myself to the joys and pains of the world. There I trust again and again my intuitive sense to attend to the competing calls of what matters most in the moment. After years of ritually working with a limited palette and its limitless possibilities, colour opens onto generous skies or branches bent in prayer. In the swish of windy transparent washes or squeezed into layered shadows that create depth and mystery, in every brushstroke there is the possibility of multiple meanings that summon body, mind, and spirit.
About My Work
Conceived as bridges between human nature and all other natures, my paintings are pathways to connection and reconciliation. My beloved Keswick Ridge is where I paint to explore personal myths and histories, to heal the psychic havoc wrought by childhood loss, and to celebrate the life I now have. They demonstrate my faith in the healing power of landscape imagery. Poetic and political, I paint to subvert the unhealthy effects that a diminished regard for beauty and landscape have had upon individuals, society, and the environment.
In contrast to an ever-increasing technological blooming and the buzzing confusion that is a hallmark of contemporary life, I maintain an old-fashioned love affair with paint. Oil paint. As a student of the ephemeral, of truth and beauty, of light and space and home, my paintings animate the physical landscape in which I stand, and the interior landscapes of my life. Painting in my Keswick Ridge studio is significantly shaped by the tall windows that frame vast views of the Saint John River valley, and the wild worlds just on the other side of the glass. My practice of looking through the windows twig memories of distant landscapes that bubble up as I paint, and only come to see in quiet reflection.
For as long as I can remember, the stuff of the natural world has been my go-to place for refuge and renewal. Mine is a landscape way of seeing, the seeds of which grew against the urban surroundings of my formative years. Grounded in the present moment, the intimate landscape paintings I make in my studio are wholly informed by my sacramental regard for the imaginative power of poetic spaces that have their roots in the past; in my girlhood New Jersey home, in the shelter of a sun porch with its French pane windows looking out onto the magic of a lone Maple tree growing from a circle of earth in an otherwise cement sidewalk. The fragrant safety and freedom that was my Sicilian American mother’s backyard garden canopied by an enormous peach tree and crammed with flowers, herbs and vegetables, grape vines, and rose-arbours, remains with me today. Bookends to our house, both enclosures invited daydreaming and art making, and were the only spaces untouched by domestic violence.
On the spectrum between representation and abstraction, the actual and symbolic, or wherever the viewer takes their visual rest, in my paintings landscape becomes metaphor. Love, longing, and the fluidity of time activate and shape the poetic paintings I make, safe sites, hospitable, embracing and transformative.
Winding Roads
Inundated with Snow
Never to be Touched
Terrified of Breaking Down…
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Winter call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Winter issue.
Artist Statement
I have always had a soft spot for misfits, outcasts, and eccentrics. I like to take things that have been rejected in some way, whether in the last chance clearance bead bin or in a pile of tossed out records at urban ore, and give them a new life and purpose. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to explore many art forms and to also find a way to use the throw away scraps from each form. While foraging through thrift stores and junk yards for treasures, I always feel I have helped give a discarded object a new lease on life, and it makes me feel human. Using old photographs or photos of old things serves a similar purpose. For me, the discarded materials portend the symbolic hope of new possibilities.
About My Work
I have spent the last 35 years exploring the disparate elements of design through various media and techniques including painting, printmaking, collage, paper, photography, fabric, glass, ceramics, beads, sculpture, wood, food, and anything else that can be used. I got my formal design education at Barnard and Columbia in New York. I am an avid photographer and traveler, so textures, patterns, and images from around the world are often a part of my creative process. I came to art quite naturally as a child and was constantly doing some sort of project in my room or at an art class. I never played with my doll house but rather constantly redesigned the walls and furniture arrangements. I frequently got art supplies as gifts and used them up quickly. My room at home was like an art studio; there was always something in-process in there. I was allowed to spread out and keep projects going for as long as I wanted. I was very lucky in that no one ever told me to clean up or put things away, so I was able to work and rework things until I was done with them, or they were done with me (which is closer to what typically happens). For me, art has often created an escape from the world, but also, as often, a vehicle for exploring feelings about the vast and sorrowful issues that plague the world.
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