AUTHOR: ARTSY CHOW ROAMER

5 Fabulous Artists

USING WORDS IN THEIR ART

I have noticed there seems to be a trend in the art world right now for using letters, words and mark-making in the formation of the completed piece of artwork. Have you?

I spent some time trolling around the sites of local Atlanta art galleries recently and was surprised to find that almost everyone had at least one artist who seemed to employ this technique in their work. Most utilizing the words and symbols to express their messages and tell their stories.

This post we’ll explore five of my favorite painters. Each are using these word techniques in different but effective ways in their work. Ready to meet some fabulous artists?

• 1-AMBER GOLDHAMMER

My first pick is Amber Goldhammer showing at Thomas Deans Fine Art gallery located on Miami Circle in Atlanta. She is best known for creating vibrant colorful paintings that have a graffiti like edginess “from the street” type vibe.

If you have read any of my blogs in the past then you know how much I adore street art-particularly murals with a message and this is the second thing Amber is known for. She puts forth a positive message of love and hope in words written in script on every painting.

There is a lovely 60’s type feeling in the movement and freedom of the work that I find fun and appealing. The stylized drips and marks along with the blocking she uses to form the pieces makes for a calm, soothing story that is reflective and reminds us of the hippie in ourselves; the reminder of all we need is love and little more kindness in the world.

Check out the time lapse video above of Amber formulating a new painting, working from all angles and stepping back to view and reflect on the work as it progresses. It will give you an excellent idea of her creative process.

Photos: Courtesy of Kai Lin Art

• 2-JEREMY BROWN

My next artist has been one of my favorites for awhile now. Jeremy Brown’s earlier works were imaginative with a bold style and a message of love as well. As they have evolved, he has only gotten more visionary and creative in how he is putting his pieces together.

Jeremy uses acrylic and spray paint with bold blocks of color and graffiti style marks. Oil stick and foil are incorporated in between layers of resin providing a slick, shiny but sophisticated street style look. Then he adds text in bright neon light with his message.

For Jeremy it really is all about the love. The passion and energy it takes to create it as well as maintain it. The more unconditional the love the better. His inspiration has come from great artists like Rothko and Basquiat-an homage to the 50’s for one and the 70’s for the other.

Rothko began his career with realism but ended it with his rectangular color blocks attributed to the American Abstract Expressionism movement that he would be known for until his suicide in 1970.

Basquiat was a street smart graffiti artist, originally part of a duo known as SAMO, who took his cues from hip hop and punk music. He married text and image with themes of poverty versus wealth, segregation and racism.

Given that inspiration, you can see how this has affected Jeremy’s work; not only in the blocks and layering but also the marks and use of text, message and images within the paintings.

The real emotions underlying each piece are humanity and compassion for each other. You can see more of his paintings online or at Kai Lin Art in Atlanta.

Photos: Courtesy Pryor Fine Art

• 3-BLAYNE BEACHAM MACAULEY

Blayne McCauley studied art and photography at Boston University and oil painting in Venice, Italy. I wasn’t surprised to hear that once I started looking through her soft muted painting style and coloring on her works.

She says her art is about the human soul and how it changes as we progress through life; learning, growing and developing as we move through the joy and sorrow in our life experiences.

Those specific experiences shape and define us and Blayne has developed symbols that represent those moments in her own life; symbols that make a visual language through text and image that recall those life changing times.

Even her titles are evocative and cause the viewer to try to put them together with the story of the visual language the artist is using. As a native Atlantan, Blayne’s work has been featured in magazines like Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles and Southern Living as well as HGTV. You can see more online or at Pryor Fine Art in Atlanta, Georgia.

Photos: Courtesy Bill Lowe Gallery

• 4-ILIDIO CANDJA CANDJA

Ilidio Candja Candja hails from Mozambique which lies on the Southeast coast of Africa. The energy, movement and playfulness of the pieces along with the explosion of color relates back to African textiles and patterns.

He creates symbols from the life he has known in his country with ghostly figures rising to meet skeletons and spiders in a burst of energetic mythology. Text and images play together to create a tapestry that becomes his story of African culture.

The brush strokes and mark-making are bold, aggressive and speak to the Abstract Expressionist style of art. Ilidio says the works explore his own restless spirit as much as anything else. They utilize a kind of collage in the layering that creates each painting.

He invites us into his world as he works and creates exotic colorful homages to his country, culture and experiences. You can see more online or at Bill Lowe Gallery in Atlanta and enjoy the video of his exhibition in the gallery as well.

5-HARRY PAUL ALLY

I have written about the paintings of Harry Paul Ally before. I have always loved the feminine angle to many of them. They first caught my eye when I walked past a gallery show where there must have been 20 different paintings hanging at once.

The bold colors were beautiful and I liked the unfinished deconstructed aspect to them. Ladies dresses floated with no bodies inside. Figures with crossed arms offered blackened faces with no features. Aggressive brush strokes and mark-making gave them their abstract expressionist feel.

Retired after holding the title Professor Emeritus from the Valdosta State University, Harry taught painting and drawing for over 30 years. He is inspired by the sculptures of Michelangelo struggling to release the figure from the stone. So does Harry try to release them from the canvas.

Harry seeks truth in his work by using abstraction. The text used often refers to the title or an aspect of the subject matter of the painting. He works in his studio in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico these days in collaboration with his wife. You can see more of his works online and at Mason Fine Art in Atlanta.

• CONCLUSION

Cultures and artists using text with images goes back to the days of the Egyptians. As time went on man worked more and more at using text to help convey what they thought their images missed saying.

Famous artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Lalla Essaydi, Wang Guangyi, Barbara Kruger and Mark Bradford all used text with images to convey the message and tell their artistic stories. The video above will explain in better detail why artists turn to text to finish delivering their messages at times.

I hope you can see why I love the work of these five artists and the stories they all wanted to get across to their viewers for contemplation and discussion.

If you liked what you read, you might also enjoy other posts under Artful Ideal. Hey, don’t be a stranger! Do you have a favorite artist using text in their work? If so, send me the 411 on them! Look for for my next post on the interesting things to do in Gainesville, Georgia and a guest post on keeping yourself healthy in these times of money woes. Until then…

Cheers,

ArtsyChowRoamer

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