Watercolor Artist Ashba Zulfiqar | Inspire Me Monday

Meet Ashba Zulfiqar
ashbazulfiqar.weebly.com 
ashbazulfiqar.deviantart.com

I found contemporary artist Ashba Zulfiqar on Instagram (@ashba26) and fell immediately in love with her work. Her drawing skills are impeccable, and execution of concepts is stunning. I could spend hours scrolling through her website drooling in awe. She knows her medium well and her artistic voice is screaming with intrigue and beauty. 

Welcome to another week with a truly inspiring artist on:

"I have always enjoyed experimenting with different mediums, but the one medium I enjoy using the most are watercolors. I like to use them loosely with more water and less control of the pigment when making art pieces that are more personal and emotionally expressive.  I am also comfortable using them to create tighter images with more detail work.

 My favorite subject matter is definitely painting and drawing human faces and the human form. Some pieces are complete portraits of people, and some are the general idea of the human face, with some features emphasized or entirely missing.

 There are multiple artists that inspire me in many different ways, but currently I am in love with the work of Agnes Cecile and her talent in using watercolors to express human emotions. Her work is simplistic but skillful. Her use of the medium is inspirational not only for its’ technically aspects but for the powerful use of color against the white space.  http://agnes-cecile.deviantart.com/

The most exciting part of the creative process are the beginning stages. When I think of an idea to depict my emotions or my thoughts. Making art that has a deeper and personal meaning are the works that seem more rewarding in comparison to ones that I create that are made to showcase technical skill i.e. Conceptual vs. Photorealistic. When I paint with no strict guidelines and just go with the flow, is when I believe I create the most powerful and meaningful art. It may not be the most technically impressive or correct, but I do literally put my heart into the work. It’s my way of expressing my emotions.  I do use art as a therapeutic exercise to clear my mind. When that ‘therapy’ turns into a strong concept or idea, it is most rewarding for me as an artist.

Using my art, I hope to inspire others to create art that is meaningful to them personally. I hope that my artwork helps people gain interest in the creative process and how it can be used to visually communicate anything with anyone and everyone in the world. That there are no limits to recreating and reinventing ideas and concepts that have been studied and portrayed by others. 

I like to make art that is driven by emotions and depicted through symbolism. My strongest ways of accomplishing meaningful art is by sketching in my sketchbook. I like to think of my sketchbook as a diary. Where I can do more personal art. Whenever I work in it, I never restrain myself from writing in it, and what I may write at times I also represent through symbols, colors, and figures in my sketches. Sometimes these small personal doodles inspire me to make a separate art piece focusing on a concept developed during the sketching process.

As an artist I have evolved by shifting my focus in creating art that not only shows technical skill and growth but to use my skills to best create images that represent an idea, emotion or concept of some sort. I know the process of evolving as an artist never really ends, it is interesting to always look back and see how/what I used to draw compared to the work I am currently focusing on and creating. It is motivational and inspirational to see this growth and evolution. Always helping me push myself further in creating more fulfilling art, both in meaning and skill."

Visual Effects Artist Josh Badger | Inspire Me Monday

Hey Friends,

This is my friend Josh Badger

 

Josh is married to another fabulous friend of mine and also an incredible visual effects artist, like, double awesome right?... Yeah, I have cool friends. I love learning about different art mediums and VFX is something so foreign to me yet so mind blowing. Josh possesses some crazy awesome skills! I am amazed at the process of post production and the time it takes to create the amazing results he's made.

Get to know a bit about Josh and his art of visual effects on yet another installment of:

Describe what you use and how you use it:
I am a Visual Effects artist, so I'm work with post production in video. I love working in Adobe's After Effects software; it's wonderful for motion graphics, special effects, and other kinds of video.

Who inspires you and what is it about them or their work that touches you?
Two people: Andrew Kramer and Ryan Wieber. Both were self-taught After Effects artists that made it, and Andrew Kramer made quite a name for himself through teaching other people.

What is it about the process of creating artwork that gives you joy? 
Depending on the work being done, I love being unseen. The video you'll see is an example of what I mean: if I've done my job right, no one knows I've even been there. 

How have you evolved as an artist?
I started in junior high school wanting to make lightsaber videos (super corny, I know). I found out that I could make money doing similar things and was hooked. I'm always looking for a simpler/quicker way to get what I want to get so I can focus on the art involved instead of the technical side.

What other things are you passionate about in life?
My wife and family; my testimony of Jesus Christ, and his Atonement in my behalf.

Did you/are you study(ing) art in school? And what made you choose to go into the program that you did? If you didn't study art, how did you learn or become an artist in your given craft?
I graduated UVU in Spring 2013 in the Digital Media: Cinema track. My specific focus (compositing, essentially special effects) isn't actually taught yet, so I am largely self-taught for my craft while learning the entire process so I can easily blend in.

"I am the chief VFX artist behind the short film "...47 Minutes...". Part of my job was to make this conference room look as though it belonged somewhere that wasn't Provo, Utah; the words "Timpanogos Terrace" would tip off any Utah County native that it was not where we purported it to be. This is a timelapse starting halfway through one shot, jumping back to tweak a second, and the full process from start to finish on a third. Each frame represents three seconds of work."



This is another work that Josh did the visual effects for. All the floating paper, yeah that's Josh's visual effects. Oh and the sweet starry night sky, yeah, Josh did that too.

Printmaking Artist J. Daniel Graham | Inspire Me Monday

I am honored to be able to feature our first educator, printmaker, and woodworker all gathered into one extraordinary artist. I came to find Daniel on Instagram and he so kindly granted me to feature him. He sent me his mind-blowing resumé, beautiful artist statement, inspiring words and images of his work for me to share with you. So I'll just stop blabbing and get onto impressing you, just as he did me. Get ready to be inspired!Introducing J. Daniel Graham web: http://www.jdgraham.net/instagram: @lineschiselsandbrayers, @spellcheck facebook: facebook.com/lineschiselsandbrayers

Image of Graham in his studio by Michael Winters from an interview found here.

"My work is an investigation of comparative relationships through personal narratives. The work intentionally wanders from traditional printmaking to furniture and everything in between including performance and installation, and kinetic sculpture. Conceptually based in storytelling I use images and elements of history as raw components. Translating these images through traditional/non-traditional processes and craft materials to engage social structures and interactions. I believe in the malleable nature of history and memory and I often rely on a process of forcing images against each other to dilate previously unscripted narratives. 

There is a practice in dream therapy in dealing with partial memory where the client will start telling their dream until it gets unclear what happens next. At this point the therapist will make up the rest. The client will contest, saying not it was not like that, but it was like this; going on to finish a dream they had up until then, forgotten. The memory comes forward to defend itself. I serve as both the client and the administrator forcing comparisons in hope of a defensive dialog coming forward to defend the visual narrative of each personal investigation." -J. Daniel Graham

What is your medium for creating a work of art? I am a sculptor and printmaker. I use everything from wood to metals and multiple processes in printmaking like screen printing, etching etc.  

Describe your journey as an artist, how did you start out, what keeps you going, how did you come to love the medium you use? Funny super long story but the short version was that I tried to take art in High School and they said it was “for serious artists only” and so my first art class was in college and it changed the course of my life. Since then I have traveled the world doing what I love. Currently I am a Sculpture and Printmaking Professor at Georgetown College in Kentucky.

Describe the process you take in creating your work. What helps you get in the zone? Usually I hear something or experience something that sparks a snowball of thinking that leads to working. When it comes to working, I just love the whole process from start to finish so its always just how much time I can get into it before I have to be doing something else.

When and where do you work best? I love mornings. I like taking advantage of time that others don’t. When I was in college all my friends would stay up super late and pull all nighters I would just come in real early every day since usually no one was there. At one point in life I worked on a golf course mowing grass and we had to be there at 4:00am to start working and it really made me like working in the dark and watching the sun come up rather than going home in the dark.

How do you get out of an artist block when you’re not feeling creative? That is usually just an issue of time and getting out of the studio. I always like the saying that “Amateurs get inspired, professionals get to work.”  It’s quite true on a lot of days that it’s just a fight to think creatively but it is a fight worth having and not waiting on something to “strike”.

What is it you love about art? I love the flexibility and I love the never-ending rabbit hole of knowledge and process. Also I love talking with people and seeing what people from all over are able to think of and accomplish.

What is your favorite subject matter? I love working with historical images and machines.

Who is your favorite all-time artist? That’s an impossible question…depends on the day really. I look at a lot of artists rather than thinking of any as particular favorites. In this way I really hope avoiding being compared to anyone.

Who inspires you (past or present) and what is it about them or their work that touches you? So many people but here are a few that have really stuck with me. Monika Lidman, Arthur Ganson, Bob Mueller, Martijn Van Wagtendonk, Ron Mueck, Peter Rollins, Oldrich Kulaneck, Rebecca Horn, Ann Hamilton, and Robert Smithson.

What is it about the process of creating artwork that gives you joy? I love cutting a smooth line or nice curve, I love craft and being precise. Something about crazy ideas coming from seemingly nowhere and getting to a place of precision is something that is very fulfilling.

What influence do you hope to have on others? I hope to make people think about what they are looking at. To think about how things are made and how that has an impact on our everyday interactions with objects and especially art.

Are you more about aesthetic, art for art’s sake, or do you like to have a deeper meaning and symbolism to your work? How do you accomplish this? I am much more of a concept based artist but I by no means neglect the aesthetics of the work. I let the idea drive the work to its aesthetic outcome.

How would you define your individual style, how did you find your artistic voice? I use traditional materials and traditional techniques found in printmaking and woodworking but I use them to alternative ends. It is ever changing because we as people constantly change. I think it is sad when artists stop playing and experimenting and stick to one thing. 

What makes your style different or recognized as yours? I think craft and traditional materials and processes used in non traditional ways seem to set me apart.

How have you evolved as an artist? I used to make work without the material or the viewer really in mind. I made work for me. Now I make work for both me and the viewer. I think that has been one of the biggest evolutions over my time in the arts.

Where did start out? I went to The University of Florida with Civil Engineering in mind as a major but I always loved to draw and make things. I grew up in a home where we were always fixing and making things. My mom was a craftsperson and my dad was handy with making things work. But it was at UF where I took an art class called WARP that really changed everything. I didn’t even realize how much I didn’t fit in until I did. All of the things that people saw as problems or awkward in me were positives in my art experiences. It just felt like I stumbled into a home that I didn’t know I owned but as soon as I looked around I realized that it was made for me.

What other things are you passionate about in life that influences your artwork/process? I love to read and watch bad reality television. I have two kids and being apart of their childhood is a passion of mine for sure.

If you didn't study art, how did you learn or become an artist in your given craft?  After my time at UF I moved to Washington DC and did an apprenticeship in furniture making before going back to school to get my MFA so I could teach college.

What is art to you/what does it mean to you? Wow that’s a tough one. Its kind of like asking what do your legs mean to you. It is how I move, its how I process so many things, simple and complicated. Its how I get from one place to another, and its something that just is, and you don’t really think about it till it is not present.

What style/movement do you like the most and why? I like what is being made today. I love bits and pieces from all of history but I like to see what people are doing with all that is available today. That being said there is a lot of bad stuff out there but there is some killer work as well. We forget when we look back over history that so much of that time is not documented or forgotten.

Ah! Isn't his work incredible? 
A huge Thanks to Daniel for sharing!
Don't forget to find him on facebook and instagram! 

Gustav Klimt | Inspire Me Monday

This past semester I had the opportunity to study art history from the 19th century. It was incredibly enlightening due to the many drastic changes in art that began nearing the end of the era. Many if not all of my all-time favorite artists have stemmed from that time period including Matisse, whom I highlighted a couple of weeks ago. This week's inspiration is an Vienna born symbolist painter from that same time period but incredibly different as far as movement and style. 

Gustav Klimt 
(July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918)

You've probably seen prints of his famous piece The Kiss or other's from his golden phase sold at Ikea. 

What I love about his work is his extremely detailed and ornate patterns and texture. His use of shape within space is stunning and like candy for the eyes. There is so much to look at and take in. Not only that but the contrast of the softened skin of the figures and the heavy detail in the patterns and bold uses of color are unique to him. 

Despite these two artworks above being quite different stylistically speaking his footprint is still recognizable in the emotions and facial expressions found in his figures. I love that he draws from so many different styles of art. In this piece he uses Sfumato, a softening technique that leads back all the way to Da Vinci threading the technique with allegorical themes and heavy symbolism. 

What captivates me the most about his work is the emotional qualities that are exhibited in every single one of his images. It's hard not to be drawn in to his work based on this aspect alone. This a quality I lack heavily in my own work and as I move forward in my journey I hope to imply more of those emotional qualities he exudes into what I do.

What do you like about Gustav Klimt?

Henri Mattisse | Inspire Me Monday

"Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence." -Henri Matisse

Ahh Henri Matisse.. my ALL TIME favorite artist! There is just something about his work that speaks to me. He uses a stupendous variety of color in his work and while his style leans towards modernism he still portrays recognizable imagery with a simplification of line and shape that is simply genius. Though it may seem elementary to some, having done several of my own Matisse studies it's hard not to appreciate his work. Attempting to replicate his style and textures is no easy task. His mark making is so sensitive, each mark being deliberate and individual. Even the pieces that appear monochromatic and flat have exquisitely subtle yet striking color variations and layers of texture. 

"It is not enough to place colors, however beautiful, one beside the other; colors must also react on one another. Otherwise, you have cacophony."

Matisse expanded upon work of the early French impressionist and post-impressionist. Having been taught color theory, a key focus of the impressionists, he headed the Fauvism movement which focused on the use of non-representational color leading art into further down the path towards the modernism. He would go into significant amounts of debt to buy art from admired artists like Gauguin, van Gogh, and Cézanne. From their works he gained his greatest inspiration, he said himself, "In modern art, it is undoubtedly to Cézanne that I owe the most." 

What do you like about Sir Matisse?