CYNTHIA BJORN, SARA SALLY LAGRAND, CARL D’AMICO, RAMSAY WISE,
CYNTHIA BJORN is inspired by the energy within moments of clarity and moments of calming peace… in the midst of chaos. She tries to capture the tone involved with these junctures. Bjorn has a fascination for mark making. Whether painting in oil or acrylic, Bjorn pays attention to the integrity of the brush stroke and the qualities of the paint. So much can be expressed through the stroke of a brush. Whether it is how fast you deliver the stroke; or how hard you push against the surface; or how the brush moves through your fingers: there is a language that happens in a conversation between the artist and the surface of the painting. She layers the paint, until she has created a statement, which speaks to the tone of the intention.
THE VENERATION OF THE FEMININE SPIRIT Sara Sally LaGrand’s works reflect her hopes for a new generation of women. As the year 2017 progressed from the post inauguration, the open attacks on the vulnerable from a chauvinist in office were followed by resistance, from the pink pussy hats to the #MeToo movement, channeling into deities venerated in this series. LaGrand grew up in the era of Gloria Steinem and the ERA movement. To her, the young women in her life deserved to feel that sense of personal empowerment she was able to embrace with events of third-wave feminism. LaGrand wanted them to see themselves as iconic women of history and to paint them, with modern elements, in heroic poses from Italian Renaissance Art.
CARL D’AMICO is a self taught scenic detailed colorist that works primarily with pen and ink, liquid acrylic, water color and some colored pencil. A “Detailist,” in that he works with a multitude of intricately fine lines and a “Colorist” because he uses soft overlays of ink or watercolor to fill in the spaces between those lines. However D’Amico does not idenify as a realist in the sense he deliberately strives to make more of a whimsical version of a scene than an exact representation of it.
RAMSAY WISE finds landscapes compelling as subjects because they seem suited to straddling abstract and representational modes, the area between which he feels most comfortable working. They suit his application methods as well, which are often improvisational and decidedly industrial. Wise uses things he either finds in the garage or at hardware stores: trowels, large masonry brushes, squeegees, spray paint applied directly from the commercial canister.
