The Encaustic Photograph

Images to Last a Lifetime

Artist Charles Bremer has explored a wide breadth of creative medium in his career ranging from photography and drawing to theater stage sets, sculpture and experimental sound. His work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and art centers both in the United States and internationally. Most of his graphic work explores a synthesis of the natural elements with the human body through his highly developed method of hand painted prints. He is an accomplished master in the technique of encaustic wax glazing. His recent exhibitions have included a study of old art supplies, collaborative project exploring text and image, and a photographic series Two Dancers at the National Museum of Dance.

Beginning in the mid 1980’s, in collaboration with his wife Martha, he hosted a series of regional exhibitions exploring the natural elements in art. These large exhibitions; Waterways, Art on the Wind, Earthworks, and Art on Fire brought together many artists to share themes related to environmental concern and understanding important to the upstate region. Much of Bremer’s work has aimed to educate and celebrate the importance of protected natural spaces both urban and rural. He has designed unique teaching programs for young students emphasizing the art of listening and unique outdoor instruments activated by the natural forces: wind, fire, and water.

Upcoming projects for 2010 include publication of a photographic portfolio by the University of Utah; an aeolian harp installation at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY; and an exhibition of encaustic wax images at the Anthony Brunelli Gallery, Binghamton. Charles Bremer is married to Martha Bremer. They have three daughters. Their workshops and studios are located along Briar Creek in Otego, New York.

— John Brunelli

Photo-Oil-Paint-Tubes, Photograph with Encaustic Glaze

Felix, Plein Air, Photograph with Encaustic Glaze

Fireside-Studios-Pigment, Photograph with Encaustic Glaze

Kodak-Sky-Filter, Photograph with Encaustic Glaze

Leaf, Photograph with Encaustic Glaze

Welcome

Another New Beginning

The end of one year and the beginning of another … the end of one decade and the beginning of another.  Looking back, it’s kind of hard to believe we’ve learned anything about ourselves we didn’t already know, and many times tried to change. We’ve seen greed unbridled from Wall Street to Dubai, sports figures and politicians  revealed for the human beings that they are, common people with uncommon talents taking center stage, a victorious political party unable to deliver on its promises, and a world still waiting for its next real heroes to surface. Thank god for the arts. When all else fails, they still deliver.  
We’re glad you’re there for us; we’re glad to be back for you. This issue ofWe’re glad you’re there for us; we’re glad to be back for you. This issue of ragazine.cc , the on-line magazine of arts, information and entertainment, continues into its 6^th season with the usual eclectic mix of poetry, fiction, photography, art, politics, the law, and more – all of which has helped keep us afloat these last five years. If you haven’t taken the time to read through the Creative Non-Fiction pieces selected by CNF editor Leslie Heywood, take twenty minutes or a half hour and do yourself the favor.  You won’t regret it. Need a laugh? Find out why everyone should go to law school in the Casual Observer piece by Mark Levy. Wondering how to protect your intellectual property? Check out our Feeding the Starving Artist column by Mark and his associate Ryan Miosek.  Poetry editor Joe Weil has harvested the poetry of Raymond Hammond, and poetry in translation from Mario Moroni. See a world deconstructed by artist Roger Williams, and a long view of Iceland by photographer Chuck Haupt. Step into the fiction of Elizabeth Spencer and Alex Straaik; sneak a peak at Art Basel Miami, and hear Jeff Katz’s take on music, starting with the complex issue of vinyl packaging. Leave us your comments. Your feedback means a lot to us.

Thanks for reading! And don’t forget to tell your friends — we need all the help we can get. But then, who doesn’t?

Happy holidays, and a healthy and peaceful New Year!

 – MRF

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Dude, Take Me Apart

The deconstructivist art

 of Roger Williams

Photos Courtesy of Larry Hamill

Roger Williams, now a voice  from  Columbus, Ohio, went to New York  as  a postmodernist artist in 1978, and lived  there for 15 years.  He worked  for art galleries, including  John Weber,  Nina Nosaie and Al Salvatore, and for artists Sol Lewitt and Basquiat. His paintings were shown in Soho, the East Village and uptown galleries.   Here he speaks about his art and career.

A commission, under deconstruction

     
I came back to Columbus in 1993 to take care of a sick friend.  That year I joined the deconstructivist movement with information that I learned in New York.     Deconstructivist (alternatively called “deconstructionist”) art is an outgrowth of postmodern art, a thought  process  by which you analyze … tear apart, the existing  academia.    

Singing Smilies ... 46" x 48"

The result is a lot more energy, with use of conceptual properties overlapping, and layering of rhythms and transparencies. According to the architect Frank Gehry, you can deconstruct anything.

Party on the Island of La Grande Jatte ... 43" x 60"

Gehry deconstructed a fish in Barcelona .  With that in mind I deconstructed  a number of portraits,  cartoon characters,  people, objects, and events that define the decade. 

Gee Haw Whittle Diddle ... 72" x 72"

  
I have my my own  style of deconstructionism. It is formally articulated and the drawing goes to painting dark lines and flat shapes with bright transparent color,   with rolled-on glazes and arbitrary overlaps to find space. 

Mojo the Monkey ... 43" x 60"

The technique is not so painterly or pickled, but with sharp crisp lines with a straight edge built for each task. The subject is very important, as the lyrics must define current events and recent history. This tells the viewer where I am in time. 

Rap Boy ... 48" x 48"

Hometown art-politics here (in Columbus) translates into a popular appreciation for folk art, outsider, untrained, and prison art.  I am the only deconstructivist artist in town . 

Elijah Pierce: Woodcarver, Barber

I have Resistance, but I also have pieces in  many important collections, corporate, private and public.  This  month I am working on five commisions, including a  7′ x 12′ mural called Flight of the Dragon Fly deconstructed  for Cosi’s 10th anniversary celebration. It will be installed at the Cosi building, 333 West Broad Street, Columbus. 

Deconstructed Ellipse

I  have made the transition to deconstructionism and  plan to continue   

Waxing Abstract

D.C. artist’s encaustics capture

moment, emotion

Cliffs of Mohr, Ireland #1, encaustic, 8" x 10"

Karpathos Island, Greece, Encaustic on Wood, 8" x 10"

Le Point Sensible, Oil on Paper, 50" x 61"Traces of Contact, Oil on Paper, 44" x 50"

Traces of Contact, Oil on Paper, 44" x 50"

California Summer #2, Encaustic & Mixed Media, 9" x 12"

The varied influences and experiences in Angela White’s life come through clearly in the ranging images of her work. From international travel in pieces such as “Karpathos Island, Greece”, to explorations of the inner and outer self in  ”Traces” and “California Summer”, her encaustics capture moments and emotion that, as is common with abstracts, allow the viewer to fill in the blanks from their own lives.

Artist’s statement excerpt:

“Body prints I created in 2007 interpret memories held within the body, as well as the body in motion. Body printing is well known within art history, but my unique focus has been to show movement with the body. Using a digital camera, I took digital images of my body prints and then transferred and embedded them into new encaustic paintings – fusing translucent layers of luminous encaustic surfaces allows me to create visual depth and density in my work.

“The seascapes and landscapes are created using encaustic and water-based oil paints, and are occasionally embedded with gold and silver leaf and covered with iridescent oil paints. A deep sense of awe and reverence for the beauty and power of nature is expressed in all of my water and land paintings. These natural landscapes, along with the body print paintings, all reflect a desire to show constant movement and natural rhythm.”

More of White’s work can be seen at www.angelawhiteart.com, which also provides a link to contact the artist.

Leslie C. Wood

“Capturing a Minute Piece of Reality”

By Robert Hazzon

Leslie C. Wood is a Philadelphia-based artist whose art is expressed in both photography and the written word. She feels that mankind has always searched for ways to express and explain the world, and that while the world was being expressed in visual imagery, it was also simultaneously being expressed in words. “Both use a rich, colorful language, which allows a story to be told, a moment to be captured, and emotions to be experienced,” she explained.

Wood sees her photography as a journey of exploring both the familiar and unfamiliar. “I believe that the only way to understand the unfamiliar is to understand the similarities it has with the familiar, and that understanding or response is different for everyone,” she says.

Wood feels that creative thinkers look at things differently than non-creative thinkers. “Although photography requires technical ability, it’s the photographer’s overwhelming desire to gain knowledge of everything around him/her that makes the difference between an ordinary photograph and an exceptional one,” she says. “Because, as new knowledge is gained, there’s a drive to witness an entirely new form being born. And, for creative thinkers it doesn’t matter if it happens in six minutes, six months or six years; they simply have the faith that it will happen.”

Many artists and nature lovers may have no interest in mathematics, but Leslie finds fascination and enjoyment in some of the parallels between nature and numbers.

“For example,” she says, “often times the number of petals in a flower is one of the following:  3, 5, 8, 13, etc., and those numbers belong to the Fibonacci sequence, where each number is obtained by adding the two preceding numbers. It all contributes to my sense of discovery,” she claims.

Wood’s philosophical approach to photography best explains the essence of who she is as an artist. As she sees it, it’s not the goal of the photographer to change the subject, but for the subject to change the photographer.

Contact Leslie C. Wood at:     lcw@writer4u.com

Or visit her website at: http://www.lesliecarolwood.com

A Lifetime’s Work:

The Watercolors of Noel G. Miles

            Born in 1936, Noel G. Miles was raised and still resides in Philadelphia, Pa.  As a child he remembers what he calls urban removal and renewal.  “I felt I was witnessing the beginning of American style; which I thought of as the beginning of civilization.  I was so impressed with all the interesting buildings that were being developed in Philadelphia.  For me, architecture epitomizes the totality of how people live,” he says.

Miles belongs to the old school of “pleine aire” artists (meaning to work outside).  Whether it’s in front of City Hall or some obscure building, you can easily spot him sitting on his stool with his drawing board, pencils and watercolors, recreating what he considers to be another architectural wonder.  “I am drawn to certain buildings by a feeling I get in my gut.  As I begin to make closer observations, I am drawn into all the details and colorations” Miles explains.  If weather conditions deter him from working outside, he continues his pieces from memory in his studio.

Crowds of people who pass by and bombard him with questions and comments are another deterrent.. Miles finds it difficult to not engage in conversation since the majority of his success has come from private sales.  He feels you never know who your next customer could be.  “My pictures ring true to people.  I think when you remain honest to your vision and love of creating art, people can’t help but feel it.  It’s more than just an accurate rendering of columns and windows; it’s an extension of my own emotional history that merges with architectural history.  Many times the feelings can be dark; other times it’s sensual” Miles says.  People are often impressed by the fact that he has rendered a building to life; one they may have noticed but paid little attention to.

Miles knew very early on, that watercolor was his medium.  He has never been impressed by what the art world considers “in”.  Even more so today, he realizes the value of having been true to himself.  “Whoever I wanted to be in my painting, I was.  That can sometimes take you away from popular interest and demand.  My work is not reminiscent of any other artist’s.  I can never be anyone except who I am.”

            With a long list of credentials and clientele, Miles is most proud that Prince Charles has one of his Philadelphia watercolors in his collection.  Also, The State Department Of Economic Development And Tourism will be publishing a book of his Philadelphia watercolors, a lifetime’s work, due for distribution sometime in 2010.  He collaborated with the city for the 100^th birthday of City Hall and they published “The Splendors Of City Hall: An Artist’s View-The Art Of Noel G. Miles.  In 2000, the Republican National Convention commissioned him for their official poster along with a portfolio of his city watercolors as a gift for their conventioneers.

           Miles has been a member of the American Watercolor Society for most of his life, and is affiliated with the Philadelphia Watercolor Society.  He can be reached at:  215-665-8546, or by email at Noelgmiles@verizon.net

Junior Year Abroad

Lights, Camera, Magic!

 The big little world

of Charmaine Caire

Guest Curator

     In a 2500-square-foot studio in midtown Philadelphia, photographer Charmaine Caire creates magical images using articles scavenged and collected from city streets and thrift shops. Shelves of boxes filled with objects from years of collecting are piled from floor to ceiling – the makings of a miniaturized MGM movie studio, or the largest flea market on the Eastern Seaboard.  She calls her studio the “Artfarm”.  I call it  “ArtFUN”.

Senso Unico

Hundreds of dolls, toys, plastic accessories from aquariums, pieces of games, fake flowers, posters, to name only a few, are the elements that make up her colorful, playful and thought-provoking photographs. Charmaine’s favorite sources for these things include yard sales, flea markets and junk stores.  “Dolls, toys, all have a history.  These things speak to me and I listen.  It’s all very symbolic.  Those messages are an integral part of the development of each photograph,” she explains.  She also belongs to a group of artists called the “Dumpster Divers” who meet once a month and share and trade “stuff” they’ve found on the street, and other places.  Her studio, once called  the “Please Take Museum,” was a meeting place for the group; the public also was invited to participate and indulge. 

Pfizer

    In the middle of her studio, Charmaine has arranged one of her miniature sets with backdrop, props and figures that tell a particular story. She uses small flood lights and colored gels to create the dramatic effects that are so predominate in her work.  Working with a Mamiya 4×5 camera that still uses film, Charmaine says with some sadness,  “I see myself as one of the photographers of the old world. I feel great remorse that my way of working has become basically obsolete. I miss Polaroid cameras.  The only thing I use Photoshop for is removing dust particles from the image and slight color saturation.  I almost never crop my images.  I do most of my own printing.”

In My Room

     It’s not hard to understand when she says, “Children really get my work.”  Her images have a campy, surrealistic quality; the kind of pictures ideal for children’s books.  They also seem reminiscent of still photos from a movie set.  Charmaine explains: “I like to tell a story, but I want it to feel unfinished.   I let the viewer fill in the ending.”  For adults, there’s a lot more in the message of her work.  With her intricate assemblage of props, Charmaine finds it the perfect venue for expressing her observations about the world we live in.  “Sometimes the work focuses on politics. Other times, I create images that propel people to face their fears.  I also enjoy eroticism.  I like being racy.”  In a recent series of self portraits depicting her many wonderful trips to Italy, her spirit is invigorated when she says:  “The woman in the gondola…THAT’S ME!”

Country & Western

   Charmaine has been working in this style for about 12 years and has shown her work in over thirty exhibitions; six of them One Woman shows.  At the beginning of October,   she took part in an art show at Isaiah Zagar’s Magic Garden on South Street in downtown Philadelphia. 

     More than anything else, Charmaine wants to work with children.  When she mentions that she will have them come to the “Artfarm”, I imagine them scrambling through her boxes and playing.  In a serious voice she responds, “Oh, no. We ‘re going to be discussing the issues of our rapidly changing world!”

Charmaine Caire with portfolio of prints.

        Charmaine Caire can be reached at www.charmainecaire.com