Painting has always been an outlet for me as is for most artists. I get lost in my thoughts of where I am going with my art. I am free to express my self with my brush strokes and in color. I feel the ideas and creations flowing through my mind to my hands. Sometimes I can not stop thinking about what I am creating, and the ideas just flow through my body and take on their own life on the canvas. Most pieces I have thought up in my mind and I can see myself painting each brush stroke before I even start to paint. I feel a sense of accomplishment and pride when I am finished with my work.
I like to photograph a subject and then paint it. I look at my photos for little details I may have missed at first glance. If I am happy with part of what I have created, then I will take my favorite part of that painting and spin it into it’s own work of art. I usually will add a textured medium or heavy brush or knife strokes to make it it’s own piece. I like to think of it as building on a foundation to a series.
I stopped painting for many years. Working and then having babies made it hard to make time for my painting. Oddly enough, I started to help at my daughter’s schools and rediscovered my passion for art. I would spend hours and hours painting murals for the teacher’s boards in the hallway. I am so thrilled to be creating again. I would like to be a part of OCAG to share my work with other artists and learn from them. I would like to find a creative group to talk and share ideas with. I would hope to be an inspiration to other women who have the same story as myself. I am finding my passion again and hopefully I can help others find theirs again too.
E-mail: mamamaras@earthlink.net
Born in Havana, Cuba and immigrated to the U.S.A. in the late 1960's. I was raised in Northern California ( Bay Area native ). I always remember having a fondness for cartoon characters and reading many Superhero comics growing up. I was fascinated by animation and wanted to be an animator for Disney.
I studied Life Drawing, Commercial Illustration and Color and Design at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. When I moved to Southern California I pursued my dream of becoming an Animator, and studied animation for film and television at the Associates of Art College in Sherman Oaks.
Most recently I began working with Oils, painting under the tutelage of two dear friends, whom I met through joining the la Habra Heights Art group. One is Don Read who is a pleine-aire artist and Mickey Mc Ilwrath who was a former Disney artist and former art teacher in Chicago. I find that working with oils has released a world of imagination and endless creativity and also learning what a wonderful medium this really is.
RESUME
The San Francisco Art Academy: Commercial Art Illustration, Life Drawing and Color and Design Techniques
Associates in Art School, Sherman Oaks: Film Animation, Story Boarding for Film and Television
Member of the La Habra Heights Fine Artists and Artisans and the La Habra Art Association
Member of the ACW (Artist Community of Whittier )
My first love of the arts was with Disney Classic Animated films and comic book art. Growing up in Northern California, I was always surrounded by creative art expressions in my family. This included my mother's love for writing poetry and music.
I have a very imaginative and creative mind which has allowed me to draw and paint expressive works of art. You will notice that my art work contains vibrant colors. What I most enjoy as an artist is to express myself without boundaries and create people or places that only exists in my mind's eye.
E-mail: juliojeannie@yahoo.com
My art work has covered the gamut, from drawing, textural pieces, sculpture, photography, printmaking to painting. Many of my art pieces combine processes.
Since 2004, I have tried to limit the processes, take images from memory, keep the work simple and direct. My work almost always has a strong personal intent, maybe not always obvious. It is, sort of, a “Visual Haiku Attitude”.
The paintings and prints are about my life, maybe an autobiography. There is no conscious logic in the acquired choices to create this body of work. It is like looking at a beautiful spider web glistening in the sun light, visually interesting, draws the viewer in, then the spider strikes through a subliminal message.
A series of prints or paintings develop, usually when I travel. In 2007, I visited Hudson Bay, Canada. A series of seven original prints developed and seven poems. In 2008 the “Museum Series” arrived on canvas. People and animals looking at paintings in the museum, so far, there are seven large paintings, probably more to come. I don’t know where the inspiration for these paintings came from. These paintings seem to have their own soul, I really can’t explain them.
After several years, I have noticed that when I see one of my old paintings somewhere, I no longer have the same feelings towards it, it has become its own entity. I have run across old work and been surprised that I was the artist or creator. I have to ask myself, does a painting create itself?
E-mail: jmackaig@cox.net
