When you are going through hell, keep going. - Winston Churchill
Featured
Material
Featured
Artist: Ed Romano
Featured
Organization: English At Large
Featured
Artist: Donnie Pope
Featured
Artist/Psychotherapist: David J. Bookbinder
Featured
Artist/Astrologer: Chris Flisher
Featured
Artist/Muralist: Carlos Solis
Featured
Artist/Inventor: Natasha Clark
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Artists
Public
Domain Art: Green Man
Featured
Artist
Ed
Romano
www.edromano.com
Edward Romano was born in Mount Kisco, New York and has
lived in the Merrimack Valley area of Massachusetts for many years.
His intent to illustrate the world as he sees it began early. As a child
he attempted to copy the comic strips he discovered in Depression-era
newspapers and was particularly attracted to well-defined and uncluttered
images. He began to experiment with painting in the 1980s.
Romano's work is largely figurative in an urban folk style,
some of which is influenced by memories of growing up in ethnic neighborhoods
in Massachusetts and New Jersey. But the majority of his themes are
more universal, endeavoring to depict people in ways that challenge
the prevailing cultural standards and where joy is part of the ordinary
human condition.
"I want to create images of people who are more concerned
with life and living than with conforming to the expectations of others.
I admire men and women who have the courage to stand aside from the
crowd and express their individuality."
© Copyright 2008 Ed Romano
Featured
Organization
English
At Large
We don't take a summer vacation!
You received a recent mailing from English At Large
with our final appeal for the fiscal year. What a year it
has been -- more than 225 local adult learners served
through our English literacy programs already!
Summer is here, but we are not slowing down! Unlike many
programs, English At Large offers services all year.
Right now, we are delivering summer conversation groups,
one-to-one tutoring, and support to hundreds of local adults.
We need your help to make these year-round services possible.
If you have already given to the spring campaign, thank
you!
If
not, please consider making a gift --
it's easy! Just click the Donate Now button.
Help us to fill the summer ahead with the
gift of English literacy for local adults -- the gift of
hope and independence -- the gift of the American Dream.
Thank you! |
Featured
Artist
Donnie
Pope
www.donniepope.com
At an early age, I was inspired by the light, movement
and fluidity that masters such as Michelangelo and Rubens displayed
in their work. Later, I was influenced by the "slice of life"
style of Norman Rockwell. I choose "slice of life" subjects
to capture the magic of the moment. I choose a lot of jazz and music
themes because of the freedom they allow me to have. I can go wherever
the music takes me. Anything “Miles Davis” is a great creative
soundtrack for me. What I really love about the creative process is
the anticipation of not knowing where I’m going to end up once
I start a painting.
As a young boy in my native town of Franklin, Virginia, I would daydream
about sharing my art with the world. My career in art officially began
in Mrs. Fenner's second grade class. Along with classmate and best friend,
Ralph Vincent, we were tasked with drawing the New York City skyline.
Running through numerous boxes of crayons in the process, we proceeded
to draw and color every brick and window. It was an arduous task, to
say the least. It took everything I had to offer creatively, but I absolutely
loved it! The New York City skyline project was the talk of grade school.
While I loved the attention, I realized at a young age that I would
always have to outdo my previous work if I wanted to stay in the profession.
Ralph went on to pursue a short career cleaning erasers. I continued
drawing and painting every chance I got. I was hooked!
Hampton University was my next stop. Beginning my studies as a raw,
freshman, art major, I was taught by some of the most talented and knowledgeable
professors and artists of the day: Lorraine Bolton (Graphic Design),
Janice Orr (Drawing) and Sister Benedict Donahue (Art History), to name
a few. These professors followed me through my college studies.
Since leaving Hampton, I've been a graphic designer for various corporations
in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. At present, I am a senior
graphic designer with a high tech firm in Northern Virginia. In a nutshell,
I love to create art, both at work and at my leisure. I hope you enjoy
what you see!
© Copyright 2007 Donnie Pope
Featured
Artist/Psychotherapist
David
J. Bookbinder
www.phototransformations.com
I was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1951. I started photographing
in high school where, as yearbook editor, I took most of the candid
and "art" pictures. After college, I moved to New York City.
There, for several years, I did black-and-white street photography,
took pictures of musicians for a book I wrote on American folk music,
shot an occasional record album cover, and worked part-time as a photojournalist.
When I left New York, I left my darkroom -- and photography -- behind.
In 2001, after a 20-year hiatus, I bought a digital camera and started
shooting again. The shift from straight black and white, wet chemistry
photography to shooting in color and manipulating images on a computer
was literally an eye-opener. Rather than the people and buildings I
had shot in my black-and-white days, I found myself shooting patterns
of color and light. I learned to manipulate the images, hoping at first
merely to improve them, but soon realizing that once an image file was
on my hard drive, I could do anything I wanted with it.
Although I still take pictures of street life, nature, and people, my
current preoccupation is with transforming photographs of flowers, stone,
metal, wood, and the sky into mandala-like images. My early influences
included Walker Evans and Diane Arbus. The present work is inspired
by the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe, the nature photographs of Andreas
Feininger, and the flower images of Harold Feinstein, with whom I briefly
studied.
My personal motivation in creating these images was to heal from a decade
of physical and emotional trauma, the consequence of a near-fatal event
in Albany, New York, in 1993. I tend to work on several mandalas at
once. On each piece, I spend anywhere from a few hours to a sequence
of several-hour sessions spread out over a couple of months. The experience
is reminiscent of meditation.
My choice of the hexagram (the Star of David, "beloved" in
Hebrew) as the organizing shape for most of these mandalas was subconscious,
but I believe this choice was no accident. In many traditions, the Star
of David, composed of two overlapping triangles, represents the reconciliation
of opposites -- male/female, fire/water, and so on. Their combination
symbolizes unity and harmony. Listening to what the mandalas were telling
me led me out of a dark place and, indirectly, to my decision to become
a psychotherapist.
Carl Jung, one of the fathers of modern psychology, believed mandalas
are a pathway to the essential Self and used them in his own personal
transformation. In a small way, as both psychotherapist and mandala
artist, I carry on Jung's tradition. I live north of Boston, where I
do psychotherapy primarily with artists and people with addictive behaviors.
I display several of the flower mandalas in my treatment rooms, and
from time to time they become part of discussions with clients. The
combination of natural elements and digital manipulation seems both
to stimulate and to relax them.
The selection on my website www.phototransformations.com/Flowers
is part of a book in progress. My intent is to pair 52 images with inspirational
quotations such that each image and quote pair resonates with a fundamental
aspect of human experience. I invite participation from anyone who cares
to contact me through my blog flowermandalas.blogspot.com.
I hope publication of these images will further the process of harnessing
the power of the mandala to heal.
© Copyright 2007 David J. Bookbinder
Featured
Artist/Astrologer
Chris
Flisher
www.chrisflisher.com
I have been creating mandalas and spiritually-realized
drawings for years. The inspiration for the artwork sprang initially
from my love of astrology. Astrology uses circles and cycles to represent
the changing universe. As the planets drift through the cosmos, as the
seasons change, as the days come and go, the universe evolves and expands
in a timeless swirl of circular motion: as above, so below. The very
essence of the circle is at the core of our DNA, the patterns of nature,
time, and space.
The drawings evolve from the subconscious and are created in a stream
of consciousness involving concentration and meditation. All designs,
patterns, and symbols are original and one of a kind. The swirl of color,
textures, and spiritual symbolism are all part of the process. Although
these are not typical mandalas, they evolve from the same spiritual
center and are offered to the universe for the collective good of all.
© Copyright 2007 Chris Flisher
Featured
Artist/Muralist
Carlos
Solis
www.CarlosSolis.net
My work reflects the distinctness of my artistic perception
from those experiences, which provides with vivid colors and physical
details those qualities in order to make something visually pleasing,
grotesque or different to look at. Furthermore, I also try to create
awareness and express an opinion about our delicate habitat, lack of
knowledge about cultural and racial diversity, South America and spiritual
concepts.
In my infinite world of my imagination, I try to convey
and stimulate the mythical and spiritual elements of visual expression.
My passion in painting started with the magnificence of elements of
nature, fauna and flora, and its natural beauty that involves its selective
conditions, for example: the majestic animals of the Amazon or Indians
from Venezuela called Guajiros. However, I always try to expand my work
to others areas of reality and with a spiritual meaning; I occasionally
have the tendency to go from one extreme to another in order to explore
and show my range of styles and techniques by creating the most beautiful
and delicate components of life with the most complex and strange art.
Fortunately for me, I have the pleasure and the opportunity
to experience the richness of many cultures in South and North America
which allow me to expand my imagination even more. My experience also
helps me to understand the differences and similarities of both worlds.
Carlos loved art since early age. He showed signs of an
active imagination and growing creative abilities. With his love for
animals and cartoon characters, Carlos always wanted to be a cartoonist
and a wild life artista, but his vision expanded through the years to
bring cultural perspective and an effective vision of more complex and
ultra-dimensional presences to his paintings.
Carlos Solis graduated with an Associates Degree in Graphic
Design. He started painting artistically in the mid-nineties as a freelancer
specializing in nature, fantasy, spiritual and conceptual art. He works
in a variety of illustrative media; such us, digital, oil, acrylics,
gauche, mixed media and pencil. He also enjoys producing works of decorative
art such as murals.
© Copyright 2007 Carlos Solis
Featured
Artist/Inventor
Natasha
Clark
www.ClarkImages.com
Let me briefly tell you the story of how Paula Wowee™
came to be. During my childhood my brother, sister and I used to do
these comedic skits. We would play out these scenes by using dolls that
we had collected. One of the adventures we played over and over again
was this character called, “Paula Wowee”. In my brother's
imagination, she was a white rabbit with two black eyes, a pink nose
and the power to fly! Also, foster bunnies called the “Wowees”
adopted Paula.
We had loads of fun creating skits and acting them out;
at the age of 8 this inspired me to write a seven book series that is
currently unpublished. By the age of 12 we never played “Paula
Wowee” again. She was gone from our minds and imagination.
I went on to go school at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh
and graduated with an A.S. degree in Arts & Animation. I was showing
off my portfolio three years ago and received rave reviews, but colleagues
and friends kept going back to the Paula Wowee character. Months later
I decided to take the advice of a good friend and pursued developing
the character seriously. She's unique, likeable, and has a cuteness
factor. Then there's the flying!
The Paula Wowee™ venture started with an online store selling
tee shirts, buttons, and other “Wowee” items. Then I progressed
on to my current projects: a plush toy line and three-dimensional animated
cartoon, which you can see on my website www.clarkimages.com.
You will also find the official Paula Wowee™ store there and some
of my art portfolio. I am interested in selling or licensing the rights
to Paula Wowee™ to a larger company that can share my magical
childhood dream with children around the world.
© Copyright 2007 Natasha Clark
Featured
Art
Green
Man
"In recognition of the connectedness of man and nature,
created
with deep appreciation for the many artists, craftsmen, and peoples
whose
art has been recycled to make this collage."

The artist
has certified that the work titled "Green Man" is now in the
public domain.
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