In 2002, my first ArtOMatic, I feel in love with Kim Reyes necklaces:  each wonderfully unique, each individually framed, art and wearable art at the same time.

Since then I have followed her work through each ArtOMatic, loving it all.

Last year I featured her in this blog here.  You really have to go see.  Really.  Go ahead and click over.  Her work Self Discovery from 2006 is one of my all time favorite pieces of art that I didn't buy.  At least I have a picture!

Each year her work is new and surprising and I always go looking for it.  We are somehow connected:  before I ever met her, we went (separately) to look at a house in upper Pennsylvania, a clay studio and home, about 8 hours away from where we live.  We finally ran into each other loading in work to a now defunct boutique in Silver Spring.  And shared another now defunct boutique that started on capitol hill (DC), later moved then closed.  Such is the life of an artist.

This year I finally have an interview with her and I think you'll enjoy her work as much as I do.  My favorite this year is Departing (below). 

 

How many ArtOMatics have you done, and if more than 1, what keeps you coming back?

      I’m not sure- I started with the Artomatic they had at the Waterfront, old EPA building and have done it since.  It’s such a scene with art and energy plus it sets a fire under me to actually create some work!

 

Where can one find you this year?   On the 7^th floor, 7-11 [elsewhere, Kim has noted that yes, indeed, it comes with a slurpy].

 

How did you choose what to show at ArtOMatic?

     As I usually do:  hear about the show, quickly register, think about what I want to do and then rush like hell to get it all made in about 2 weeks- I’ve always been a procrastinator.  To think what I might make if I got started earlier, lol!

 

How long have you been making art?  What do you do when/if you hit a slump?

   I’ve been drawing, painting and making sculpture from age 4.  When I hit a slump (and it’s usually due to being too busy), I have to usually go to a café and drink coffee, sketchpad in hand, think and watch people….or I go to sleep and it just comes to me sometimes.

 

Who are your favorite artists and what inspiration do you draw from them?

     Two of my favorite ceramic artists are Sergei Isupov and Michael Sherrill– I love their figurative work and have studied with both at Penland School of Crafts.  Sergei’s twisted psycho-sexual work, incredible attention to detail and color usage just inspire me!  Michael’s techniques and color/texture usage in addition to his realism to nature really makes me look at my surroundings in much more detail.  I’m also very drawn to Native American pit-fired pottery and fetishes.

 

    In paintings I have many favorites but rounding out the top are Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Rothko.  I love them also for color, pattern and exaggeration of the human form.

 

Have you had a chance to look around ArtOMatic yet this year?  Do you have any instant favorites?  any returning favorites? 

   I ALWAYS look around Artomatic every year- I looked during installation floor by floor and then later the night the show opened.  I’m buying some work this year!  I have purchased a wonderful drawing/painting from Pam Rogers, 3-06- I adore ALL her work!!

 

I want to buy a piece of Penny (Piyawan) Kovach’s (8-02) if  I can decide on which one and ultimately afford it, lol!!!  [sorry, can't find any links or images].

 

Tammy Vitale (2-02) is always a favorite- my sister in clay !!!  Matt Sesow (9-14) – I always love his work.  Tim Tate(8-02) (and he is the one who introduced me to my 1^st Artomatic!!!)   Other work I truly wish I could afford:  Sean Hennessey (9-03),  Shawn Helton (7-15),  Pat Goslee (6-13) and Lisa Schumaier (8-04)- [see work by Lisa Schumaier below – I, too, love her installation] and there are more whose names I do not know~

 

Where else can we see your work?  I have some work in an amazing gallery in

Frederick

called “Dragonfly” and although it is currently not updated I have some work on .

 

Anything else you'd like to add about yourself, your work, art in general?  \

   I will be doing some body painting on models during the Art in Fashion show at Artomatic on July 3^rd!

 

(here's Lisa's work)

I don't "get" most installations, but this one has completely enchanted me because the individual pieces make sense.  To me, Lisa's installation is the ultimate in displaying one's work to its best advantage.  Something I should think about for next year's ArtOMatic just for something different.  I think I'm getting tired of flat panel like surfaces.

thought for the day:  She wouldn't, actually, have minded so much if the world were indifferent to all artists.  She could have endured that.  What was painful was that the world embraced people like Onie Wexler, that the world took them to its vast, approving, nurturing bosom.  It gave them lavish, uncritical praise and respect; it gave them other famous people who sought their friendship.  It gave them the belief that what they were doing was important, that their work was respectd and recognized as serious.  And why did the world ot give all this to Julia?  There were moments when this was galling and bitter.

     But there were also moments…that Julia was simply grateful for the life she had, grateful that she was alowed to do this – make art.  She was, miraculously, permitted to make these images, and miraculously, other people recognized what she was trying to do and came to see them and talk about them, and even to buy them.    Roxana Robinson, Cost:  A Novel.