My work is loosely based on the figure, sometimes morphing into quirky and other worldly beings. The figures I create, some creepy and dark are not to be found on the street but rather in one’s imagination or dreams creating an alternate universe. My ceramic figures inhabit boats, circular and square stands, clay or wooden wagons with wheels, figures sitting on animals or chairs and recently figures appear in portraits.
My work is loosely based on the figure, sometimes morphing into quirky and other worldly beings. The figures I create, some creepy and dark are not to be found on the street but rather in one’s imagination or dreams creating an alternate universe. My ceramic figures inhabit boats, circular and square stands, clay or wooden wagons with wheels, figures sitting on animals or chairs and recently figures appear in portraits.
Although my figures are pared-down minimalist in outside appearance, I mean for them to have complicated and subtle inner lives. For me, they carry the heavy weight of emotional fragility.
Wondering how to live in the world with others … this is my way of speaking through my art, my way of being in the world.
Girl Bandit | Ceramic/porcelain | 4.5″h x 3.5″w x .5″dFlower Bandit | Ceramic/earthenware | 4.5″h x 3.5″w x .25″dHorse with Rider | Ceramic/earthenware | 3.5″h x 4.5″w x .5″dBlue Dress | Ceramic/earthenwaren |4.5″h x 3.5″w x .5″d
Releah Michelle was born in Georgia in 1987. She is a self-taught abstract expressionist who has been honing her artistic voice for many years. Merging her love for painting abstract figures and automatic painting around the movement of energy paves a straight line to her artistic vocal cord.
She is currently based in Georgia and is inspired by her ancestors, ancient Egyptian history, the spiritual world, meditation, and the use of bright colors. Beauty also plays a significant part in her style presented in the artworks because she was previously an independent latex clothing fashion designer for a total of 7 years. She presented at NY Fashion Week and put on several local fashion shows. Her creative process for the abstract figurative paintings begin with either her sketching first or free-hand painting figures into abstract backgrounds. Her creative process for abstract paintings begin with layers of acrylic paint being applied on the canvas over a period of days often incorporating a mixed media approach.
Artist Statement:
Art is a path so I describe my art as an extension of my previous fashion designer career. As an artist and expressionist who is constantly evolving spiritually my art explores the relationship between beauty and the spiritual world. Reflections of the soul, beautiful black woman, and texture are a couple of the subject matters you will find in my artwork.
Neutral Identity | Acrylic on Canvas | 24″ x 12″We Are Connected | Acrylic on Canvas | 18″ x 24″The Sun is Shining | Acrylic on Canvas | 18″ x 24″Heatwave VS Comfort | Mixed Media on Canvas | 18″ x 24″
I became inspired and encouraged to start painting in 2019, following the completion of a creativity workshop based on the premise that if one has a long-held desire, dream or instinctive push to do something, it is most likely a nudge from the universe that needs to be explored.
Prior to that time, I had experienced great difficulty expressing myself through art. After taking the workshop, I felt the freedom and encouragement to start painting. I believe my art is an expression of those feelings of freedom, openness and fun! My medium is acrylics and I describe my art as expressive, intuitive, unique, bold, and colorful.
In some ways, I feel that I do not do the art, the art does me! I am usually quite amused and surprised by the finished painting! I know that my art work is an expression of my life experiences, desires and dreams. When thinking about the viewers of my art, I imagine them standing there, being intrigued, heads cocked to one side, thinking,” wow, what is this all about?”
As a self- taught artist, in my seventies, my wish is to inspire and encourage others to open up to their creative selves and express their gifts.
Boneface | Acrylic on paper | 14 x 11Chums | Acrylic on paper | 14 x 11Dancing Girl | Acrylic on paper | 14 x 11Sunfaces | Acrylic on paper | 14 x 11
Martin Coyle is and Outsider Artist with no formal art education or training, he has been painting out of his home studio located in a converted barn behind his house for the last 15 years here in the beautiful city of Dover N.H
Martin Coyle is originally from Long Island New York and is related to late NYC expressionist painter Otto Mjaanes.
Coyle is married to his beautiful wife Rachel and they have a 19-year-old daughter Solei
Statement by the artist
As an outsider artist I don’t go into creating my paintings with an intention or direction, I let the artwork create itself. I consider myself an expressionist and create both figurative and nonfigurative artwork .
I have always been an artist but didn’t get serious with my art until 2012, In 2013 I had my first group exhibition art show at 100 market gallery in Portsmouth N.H and won the award for honorable mention.
Since then, I have been in group art shows in New Jersey and twice in California.
I work in many different mediums and enjoy both painting and drawing.
Deep Elm | mixed media | 20×24 inchesSelf Reflection mixed media | 20×24 inchesBarn Street | mixed media | 24 x 36 inchesSoft Parade | mixed media | 24 x20 inches
Marcela is a self-taught intuitive artist born in Sydney, Australia. She is currently based in Hong Kong.
Her earliest creative explorations were in dance, drama, singing and visual arts. In childhood and adolescence, she found an escape in art and a place where she could express herself without words.
After high school, she completed a Law Degree at the University of Technology Sydney, which saw her work in various jobs from legal to publishing related jobs.
She felt herself pulled back into the arts during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The turmoil brought about by the pandemic, led her to connect more deeply artistically and spiritually. Creating art felt therapeutic and her art quickly became deeply connected to her spiritual practice.
Marcela’s work is based on intuition, mindfulness and vibrational energies. Her works revolve around exploring the realms of the unknown and altered states of consciousness. Rainbows are often found in her works, as a symbol of the rainbow bridge.
Through predominately ink, watercolour and hand drawn digital art, her works represent her way of translating the unseen energies she experiences into something more tangible for others to see.
She hopes her art sparks discussions about other-worldly topics that transcend current human understanding.
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Artist Statement:
I try to capture the invisible and make it visible.
My work is based on intuition, mindfulness and vibrational energies.
My artworks are often created subconsciously from a prayerful meditative place, only once they are finished do I come to understand what they are expressing.
In part through automatic drawing and also through accessing my intuition, I challenge others to see beyond current human understanding by diagramming elements of the immaterial world and exploring altered states of consciousness. To have people look past the 5 senses, that is my goal and inspiration.
Felicity | Hand Drawn Digital Art | 16″ x 20″By Your Side | Hand Drawn Digital Art | 16″ x 20″A Face In The Crowd | Hand Drawn Digital Art | 16″ x 20″Better Together | Hand Drawn Digital Art | 18″ x 24″
Issue Six is now available digitally for free or $25 for a printed version.
Artists in issue six
Robert Gorchov *Cover Artist
Robert Frankel
Kevin Kemp
Dio D’Brutto
Valentina Fedoseeva
Ernest Compta
Matthew Clarke
RINA Taytu
Nicklas Farrantello
Sven Froekjaer-Jensen
Mitchell Pluto
Richard Reynolds
Gale Rothstein
Thelma Van Rensburg
Jennifer Levine
Susan Spangenberg
Emmanuel Laveau
Samia Farah
Selkie Quan
Bux Dhyne
Bill Skrips
Poete Maudit
Christy Carter
BILL _L47
Sophie Jacobs
Oshi Artist
Michael Chomick
David Sheskin
William Francis
Richard Green
Hermine Harman
“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul,” Valentina says, quoting Wassily Kandinsky.
Since Val discovered the Science of Color Therapy she continuously experiments with the healing power of colors. She realized on a deeper level the influence of colors on the lives quality.
“As for today, I use that knowledge in my paintings. Working on it I convey an emotional surge and sense of color. We know since ancient times that properly balanced colors have a mysterious effect on the human psycho-emotional state, improve our health and mood. So, I inlay the knowledge of how colors can transform a person’s life in every brushstroke. The correctly selected artwork has a permanent meditative effect which definitely will help you to find a balance and state of mind,” Valentina says.
Valentina loves to draw since early childhood. While she studied at the Art School, she was sure that creativity will always be a vital part of her life. Later she studied Interior Design where her favorite subjects were painting and art history. The mesmerizing artworks of Salvador Dali, George Braque, Amadeo Modigliani, Piet Mondrian, and Kandinsky had an indelible impact on her. Their artworks influenced more her perception of color than of style. It is harmoniously balanced both in color scheme and emotional components.
Val has a passion for traveling, as she considers it the best means for inspiration.
She was born in a small town in the place known as Bessarabia, and
from a young age, she moved from one place to another, gained experience, absorbing the charms of each of them.
At the age of 18, while her family lived in Israel, she moved to Russia, where she continued to study, meet other young artists, and share her experience.
For several years she lived in the foothills of the Caucasus on the shore of the Black Sea.
She traveled a lot and was inspired by the culture of different peoples.
Indelible impressions were received during a traveling through India where she dived into the riot of colors of the wild east. She traveled around Mexico and Guatemala exploring traditional Aztec and Mayan ornament. Great!
“I love to create something new, to experiment with styles and shapes, colors and textures. I observe how it influences the other people,” Valentina says.
For quite a long period, her choice was on soft pastels, it was a very bright wave in her life, the results were pleasing. Val started working on graphics, precise clear lines, and dot-work. This process absorbed her completely, but she didn’t want to stop there either.
Since 2017, Val lives and creates in the US. Along with the moving, acrylic paints and large canvases came into her life.
“It is like different poles of my nature, on the one hand, it is black and white graphics, clear lines and the smallest details, and on the other hand it is a colorful self-expression,” Valentina says.
Mountains and Thousands of Suns #01 | Acrylic paint on Canvas | 16 in x 20 inMountains and Thousands of Suns #02 | Acrylic paint on Canvas | 16 in x 20 inMountains and Thousands of Suns #03 | Acrylic paint on Canvas | 16 in x 20 inMountains and Thousands of Suns #04 | Acrylic paint on Canvas | 16 in x 20 in
Recently, at a traveling carnival, I came across one of those old coin-operated fortune-telling machines. You put a quarter in the slot, a figure comes to life, waves its “hand” over a glass ball, and out pops a scroll of paper with your future written on it. I was struck by the device’s mannequin, wrapped in colorful, patterned, silks and the device’s antique carved wood cabinet, with brass detailing. I was also intrigued by the idea that this mechanical device with gears and cogs was somehow supposed to be able to tell me my future. How could a cold machine possibly know my life’s destiny? Of course, it can’t. Like the fortune cookie or the Magic 8 Ball, these things are meant solely for entertainment.
Yet, they still hold power over us. For some people, a Ouija board or a deck of tarot cards can be the couriers of life-changing information. These objects are believed to possess mystifying and arcane knowledge, even though, in reality, they are just novelty consumer products. The clerk at the magic store orders a gross of tarot cards whenever the stock is low and a new Ouija board can be purchased in the board game section of your local toy store, next to Chutes and Ladders.
The thing that makes these items magical can be found in their construct…not in just how they are made or their graphic design, but in their entire idea. Usually, the stories around these items are just as important as the items themselves; and the contexts in which they are used play a massive part in their power.
I began to wonder if there are other objects that somehow provide knowledge through purely mechanical means. Old analog calculators leaped to mind, the slide ruler, the abacus, and the mechanical adding machine with its crank handle. These devices also convey complicated ideas through the simple arrangement of moving parts. And their power is not questioned. All of ancient China was controlled using sliding beads on an abacus.
Like the fortune-telling machine at the fair, these tools of science were often also beautiful, delicately carved devices with inlaid brass and ivory. Although these machines were based on math, for some, they too possess mystifying and arcane knowledge. They have their own mysticism, their own sacred places of use, and their own histories and lore. In the hands of mystics at NASA, the slide ruler took us to the moon.
So here I present a new paradigm. What if science made devices that could calculate more than just numbers? What if engineers and mathematicians could come up with formulas and conversion wheels that could tell us who to love or the nature of the soul? What might it look like if all the mysteries of the world could be quantified, laid out in charts, then formatted into easy-to-use slide wheels? What if there was a company that had been creating just such devices for decades? This collection is a celebration of that idea
Whom Should You Trust | mixed | 16″ x 16″ x .75″What They Made You Forget | mixed | 20″ x 30″ x 1″How Many Cat Souls Equals One Dog Soul | mixed | 30″ x 20.75″ x 1″Is Your Relative Possessed | mixed | 20″ x 23″ x 1″
Working with old vintage items and broken items is a thrill. Taking something discarded and giving them a new life is my passion as an Artist.
Down the rabbit hole | mixed media sculpture | 13in H x 7.5 in L x 4in WWoodlyn fairly on a toadstool | Mixed media sculpture | 10in H x 6.5in L x 4in WFantasy Flowers | Mixed media sculpture | 14in H x 5in L x 4in WFamily tree | Mixed media sculpture | 13in H x 11in L x 9in W
I spend a lot of time watching paint dry which is fine because I consider myself to be, first and foremost, a painter. Experiments in drawing led me to tear paper and arrange found objects, lifting me off the paint surface into collage and assemblage. The arrival of furniture ‘shards’ seemed a natural extension of this process and allowed me to step outside the bounds of academic art. Recovered from alleys and yard sales, the chairs, tables and dressers introduce a human element to, otherwise, complex gestures. They represent a human scale with human references: arms, feet, legs, backs, seats and so on. An anthropomorphic whisper keens behind the work.
During a year spent teaching in Japan, I visited ancient Kyoto several times and loved the wooden artifacts of rice cultivation–splintered and gray–honored in retirement, placed around the wood-and-paper houses, sometimes mounted on the exterior as decoration. The ‘Kyoto’ series with its layered wooden designs owes its origins to this memory. ‘Debris Fields’ differ in that they are created from just one fractured furniture piece, making them bolder, simpler, and more colorful.
. . . which brings us back to the paint. Except for the base coat and a rare touch with a brush, the paint is poured and sprayed; it flows and drools and cracks and oozes. You’d think it would add a chaotic element. Quite the contrary, the paint imposes order while charging the pieces chromatically and emotionally; it creates harmonies or contrasts that give depth to the human gestures.
Debris Field #12 | furniture shards, acrylic/polycrylic | 60″ x 35″ x 8″Debris Field #10 | furniture shards, acrylic/polycrylic | 51″ x 36″ x 10″Kyoto #10 | furniture shards, acrylic/polycrylic on pegboard | 36″ x 36″ x 3″Kyoto #8 | furniture shards, acrylic/polycrylic on pegboard | 72″ x 27″ x 5″
Outsider Art Magazine 