Selected Artists – Issue Two
Congratulations to all who made it into issue two of Outsider Art Magazine.
Thank you to everyone who participated and submitted your art for consideration. There was some amazing art that didn’t make the cut so please keep submitting for future issues of Outsider Art Magazine. Next call for art will be soon and we will send out an email and post a call for art.
Selected Artists listed in no particular order.
Issue One is now available in digital and print. Digital – FREE Print $20 We’re also accepting art submissions for issue two. Submit your Art
Don Bergland’s psychological creations rely upon the viewer’s internal ability to engage willingly in the process of metaphysical reflection. His dark images, featuring youthful characters, aged mentors, oddly assembled creatures, and quaintly juxtaposed objects, are rendered in precise detail in captured moments of frozen time, mechanical statements voicing eternity, death, childhood, and absurdity in the unfolding of the human drama, an uneasy combination laid before the viewer in a exposure of theatrical puppetry.
Born in Amsterdam, Holland, my family emigrated to New York in the ’60s, eventually settling in Los Angeles. Art has occupied me from my earliest recollection. As a youngster, I would travel to the public library, return with 10 art books, devour them, then return for 10 more. Though I never had any formal training or, indeed, any sort of academic career, I educated myself through visits to museums and galleries, and, of course, by doing the work. Along with an intimacy with art, I have always considered it equally important and rewarding to maintain a bond with literature, music and the liberal arts. Every artist has to invent painting for themselves. I want to create compelling and original art, and have been fortunate to find outlets for my work along the way as well as support from some people who like what I do.
I’m Dutch/Egyptian, retired, but I was a businessman, teacher, inventor and I love challenging tasks. I’m completely self-taught, I never studied art or took any courses. I would say that my personality was formed in an Eastern society and has also been changed and affected by a Western one. My art represents the pain my family and I went through due to my daughter’s chronic illness, and it is inspired by her. One of my first jobs in Amsterdam was working as a cleaner at the Van Gogh museum, I was very impressed by the art and it helped my art career.
Mandalena combines the classical with modernity, as she takes a timeless subject or topic and presents a modern rendition of it. She redefines and recreates a traditional idea, by imparting expression through brush strokes. She loves doing portraits and pays special attention to get a true likeness of the eyes as she firmly believes that our “eyes are the windows to our souls”. Her opinion is that the skillful use of the art isn’t only the attempt of reflection the reality but first of all, the most accurate devise of emotion.
Katie Willes is a self-taught abstract expressionist. Her degree was in Chemistry, but her art education started in museums across Europe. With a passion for art herself, Katie’s mother took her to museums on every vacation and weekend trip during Katie’s teenage years, when Katie’s father was stationed at an Army hospital in Germany. Katie’s love for art continued and she takes her own children to museums in every new city and country they visit.
Despite her appreciation for art, Katie always thought of herself as a left-brained person. Her interest in abstract was piqued with her first visit to the MoMA in New York. When her oldest went away to college and studied art, Katie started painting as a way to connect with her. That sparked a passion that has blazed like wildfire. With an innate eye for color and design, Katie’s paintings also reflect her optimism and happy personality.