Mike Ozolnieks

"When I'm working I have to constantly take a step back and look at it from far way. I'll occasionally walk away and do something else because sometimes that first glance when walking back into the studio will tell you everything you need to know about your painting. "

In his paintings, Mike O. provides a variety of contrasting elements that require the viewer to take time with the work and establish their own ideas of where and why connections take place within the piece. The sheer size of the work and the layers of information that are discovered in each painting provoke a real cerebral and emotional experience.

GE: Most of your imagery is very interpretive - why do you feel this is important to your work?

Oil on Canvas. 2011

MO: I used to always have the problem of being too literal with the message I was trying to convey to the viewer. In my more recent paintings, I have tried to become more suggestive and only put things in that are essential to what I’m trying to say. I like to think of interpretation as a way for the artist to let the viewer in on a story about them, it’s humbling. It’s not always easy for me to openly tell everyone about what I am painting about. It also becomes more than just looking at a painting and seeing it for a piece of canvas with paint on it. It’s about stepping into the work and creating an individual interpretation of what it’s about. It makes the painting different to everyone who looks at it; in that sense it is really never just one painting about one thing.

GE: Given the size that you work on, what do you feel is the most challenging thing about working on such a large-scale painting?

MO: When I started working with Ed Smith a couple years ago he had me work on paintings that were about 10' x 6'. I hadn'’t had an extensive amount of experience with oil and I had never worked very big. When he showed me the wall he wanted me to work on, I thought to myself, "Yeah Ed, sick joke." Looking back, it was a way of learning how to swim by being tossed into the pool, and I am so grateful for that. It has helped me so much because now large-scale paintings don’t seem very big at all in comparison to those first canvases. I have grown to love working on a big scale, but with it I’'ve had to learn how to create a relationship with the space. The hardest part in the beginning was always keeping composition in mind no matter what I wanted to include in the painting. It's like getting a new room and trying to figure out the best place for everything. I've also learned by looking at other work that every inch of the canvas doesn'’t need to be highly worked over, as long as it all works together. When I'm working I have to constantly take a step back and look at it from far way. One area could look great until I step back and see it just doesn't fit at all. I'll occasionally walk away and do something else because sometimes that first glance when walking back into the studio will tell you everything you need to know about your painting. Shooting pictures while I work on a painting has always been helpful for me too.

GE: Considering you are presently working on multiple pieces, what about working on a number of pieces at the same time do you like as opposed to the cycle of finishing one work and beginning the next?

MO: I never used to work on multiple pieces even though professors had always told me to. I'd get so wrapped up in one work that it was hard to think beyond it until I was finished. I have learned that working on several pieces can help open up a door to one of them that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I used to work on a painting until I would go crazy and never want to look at it again. Having multiple pieces lets me take a break from one and sometimes just vent onto another piece of canvas - oddly enough sometimes that becomes my best work. It has become so beneficial for me because I always like to be working and now I can do that without getting stuck at a dead end on just one of them. I am at my best when I can get momentum and always come into the studio with something I'm excited to work on. It’s so important to me to always make my next painting better than my last and have that outlet to just keep pushing forward.

GE: Which artists are you inspired by?

Oil on Canvas. 2011

MO: This has always been a tough question for me because I tend to find specific pieces from varying artists that I fall in love with, but it's not always about one specific artist; I am the same with my music. Although, ever since I have seen one of J.M.W. Turner'’s paintings in person I have become a huge fan. He has the ability to create beautiful suggestive landscapes with large strokes and flowing colors, but then he'll have detailed areas of the painting that are so developed and intricate. I have always wanted to be able to do that in my work, so it is only natural that his paintings have become inspiration for me. Recently, I have tried to use a more textured style of painting that mirrors the work of Jasper Johns. He fills the space in such an interesting way that he really has no need for imagery in his work at all, his textures are just incredibly successful. I have started to also check out a lot of work by Robert Longo and Anselm Kiefer. I find artwork in all different kind of styles appealing, and I think that’s the beauty of art. I'll always try to take something away from a painting even if I don't like it - there’s always something to learn, even if it’s what not to do. In general, when looking at master painters throughout history, I tend to enjoy the early work they did before they became the well-known artists we know them as today.

GE: How are you hoping to incorporate art into your life after college?

MO: The million dollar question. I think every artist has been asked the wonderful question, "So what do you wanna do?" The real answer is attend graduate school, that's at least what I tell my parents to keep them off my back for now. In looking at it as a general question I honestly see myself working in the world of branding or some form of graphic design. In high school, we were able to design the logo for the school play, after that I was hooked. My work has been very involved in both digital media and studio art. The day will come when I have to probably choose one and I am not excited for that. In a perfect world I would love to paint just because it has become such a part of my life and I don't know how I will do without it. Art will always be a part of my life, just as it has been for as long as I can remember.  It is something I cannot get away from even if I wanted to. If I don't end up having a career in the art field, the foundation that art has given me will always be a part of my work. To be honest, I love not knowing what I’ll be doing after I graduate, all the doors are open for me.

Oil on Canvas. 2011

GE: What do you think it takes to become a successful contemporary artist in today's art world?

MO: I always feel so grateful for the kind of work environment that our studio [Marist College Steel Plant] has. This place has become a home because of the people that have been here to help me get to where I am today. This studio has prepared me for working in the real world, but I won't have those people to tell me why my painting looks so bad and how I can fix it. I think that always being a student of the arts in order to gain knowledge and use that knowledge to help progress your work is extremely important to becoming a successful artist. I like how Pam Avril mentioned in her Graphic Echo interview about creating a personal vocabulary and history to support you. I have a lot of sketchbooks that have filled up over the years and they are the heart and soul of what I do. They are there to always remind me what my work is about and where I've come from.

GE: Given that we live in an era where the definition of art has become utterly ambiguous, do you think that for an object to be considered art it needs to be aesthetically pleasing?

MO: I think the role of an artist is to make something that is visually strong. It is important that when making a piece of art, the intention is to make something that people want to look at. It is always important to provoke an emotional response from the artwork, but I still believe it has to be aesthetically pleasing because you have to see it to feel it. I have always had a struggle between conveying the message I want to get across to the viewer while still thinking about creating a painting that is visually pleasing. Artists that blur the line of what is art, or make something that isn’'t aesthetically pleasing just to say they can isn’t something I am a huge fan of. Being an artist does include sometimes pushing the boundaries and doing something no one has done before. However, there are fundamentals of art that need to considered. I think it goes back to the respect for the arts and being able to still consider something's composition, use of color, technique, etc. If someone doesn'’t take the time to consider all of those things then they are not making a piece of art.  

Oil on Canvas. 2011

GE: Because we are all influenced by other artists and acquire ideas from other artwork, some say that unadultered originality in art is dead. Do you believe this to be true?

MO: I refuse to believe that is true. If it is then we should all close up shop and become art historians. Most, if not all, artists reference past work and use it to help improve their own work. I think that is so important, but it’s about reflecting your own style off of what has been done before. When artists put their own twist on past work there is an infinite amount of possibility for originality. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone has a different way of telling it. A lot of my work is based off of family and my own experiences. I am not the first to paint about family and personal experiences, nor will I be the last. At the same time, no one will ever have the same relationship with them that I have; the same goes for any other relationship someone has with another person that has impacted their life. My work is a way for me to show how grateful I am for what they have given me. Art gives me that outlet to show what is important to me. Work that is a personal passion will always be original, and no one can take that away from artwork with meaning and heart as its inspiration.

Pamela Avril

"Painting is not an easy path. But you start to build your own history, a vocabulary of your own personal language that you have to fall back on. It gets easier when you have that to draw yourself out from." 

By applying the traditions of Western painting to images of ancient Eastern deities, Pamela Avril fuses the long histories of two very different cultures. Her mark-making creates circuits of thin colored lines that run throughout her paintings like veins, connecting each part of the piece with its whole body. This visualization of connectivity aligns with the ideas she is looking to explore, particularly the degrees of honesty within our consciousnesses as well as what unifies us all as human beings on this earth.

GE: When did you first start painting images of Eastern religious iconography? What sparked your interest in this subject? 
PA: Prior to 2008, I had been painting portraits of contemplatives and studies of my daughter for about a decade. For a decade before that, I had been working much more abstractly and gestural, but even then (about 20 years ago at this point) Eastern imagery would come into play in my work in a very disguised way, although it was too abstract to be read as such. Working with these images in a more direct way is new, starting in 2008. I've always been interested in Eastern culture, music, art and philosophy. I think I actually bought one of the first yoga books that came to the United States in the early 80's.

Rain, Oil on Canvas. 2011

GE: In 2008, there was a significant shift in your approach to painting. What triggered this effect?

PA: For about a decade before 2008, I was doing a lot of investigation of ways to paint from observation. I had been painting abstractly for about 20 years, but I still enjoyed realism. I learned a lot from that period of time. In my journey, I have wiped out any thoughts of hierarchy in painting (i.e. abstract vs. realism). A major influence was that both my kids had an interest in music and I loved to go to their lessons. The teacher would talk about one note being slightly flat. I thought, why should it be different with painting? Painting is like learning to play an instrument, with hours and hours of technical training. This showed me that I needed to keep working and keep training in order to find my voice – to find out how to speak about the things that really matter to me. I knew I needed to keep going and eventually, things started to flow. Work begets work.

GE: Light is very clearly presented as an important element in your pieces. What role does light play in the Eastern religions you are representing?

Birthing Worlds, Oil on Canvas. 2011

PA: Meditation where you visualize certain lights is an important practice in many Eastern religions. Some of my images merge from meditative states and light does come into those visionary aspects. Of course, light is also a metaphor for enlightenment. In terms of painting, I've always been interested in light. In my early studies, I fell in love with Impressionism and its depiction of light in painting.

GE: Given that your figures and their backgrounds become so much a part of each other, do you base your palette and energy of a painting off the figure? Or do you first create the atmosphere of the painting and then incorporate the figure? (Which came first, the chicken or the egg?)

PA: Most of them were the figure first. They begin in my mind more like portraits. The background becomes a radiation of the meaning of that particular figure. Some of them go through many changes throughout the process. I'm inventive as I go; they are painted much in the same manner as abstract painting, which is to dive in and let the process take over. Finding out how it should come into being comes through the process - it's a letting go. I have to let go of what it is I think I want.

Preserver, Oil on Canvas. 2011

GE: Do you ever become frustrated with the way a painting is developing? How do you cope with this frustration?

PA: Yes, it happens regularly. Although there are times when it is nothing but easy and I've had times where I felt, can it really be as easy as this? Those are the times it turns out that others respond to the work most. You can't have expectations and you can't have fear - it's a gradual unfolding of saying yes. When we have expectations and fears of opinions, we prevent ourselves from what we really want to do. Frustration can be excruciating, how deep it can feel. It's like a self-imposed prison we are putting ourselves in. Painting is not an easy path. But you start to build your own history, a vocabulary of your own personal language that you have to fall back on. It gets easier when you have that to draw yourself out from.

GE: What are the advantages of working from a model as opposed to a photograph?

Floating Mountains, Oil on Canvas. 2011

PA: I much prefer a model if it can be accommodated, but the trouble is that it's not always possible. If you're looking at something that has already been transcribed into 2-D, you are only looking at a portion in terms of tone and color. Especially digital imagery really simplifies tone and color. Yes, it is easier to work from 2-D because the decisions are already made for you. When working from life, you decide for yourself what colors, what light. In a photo, the flesh might appear in browns - if we looked at each other, we see pinks and blues. Now if I have to use a photo, I can imagine colors with my memory from working with life. Also, the pressure of time that comes with working with a model is really riveting. The pressure that you put yourself under produces the energy of creating. In a way, it's like a furnace. Pressure can help.

Angie Carafas

"There was a point where I felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions without ever liking any of them enough to follow; I would become lost.  I kept on working through it all and it kept my mind and hands busy until I was able to figure it all out."

As an artist who likes to try her hand in many types of artistic media, 
Angie Carafas is no one trick pony. She has proved herself to be a true storytelling via the means of both animation and photography. While her cartoon characters act out the wacky, comedic adventures drawn from her imagination, her photography narrates a history of a lost people and offers to its viewers a contemplation of time.

GE: Considering you’ve worked in an extensive variety of arts media, which medium do you feel most comfortable with and/or plan to pursue a career in?


AC: I suppose for me it's not a matter of comfort. I like to think I'm fairly comfortable with any medium I’ve tried. Whether I'm very good at them is another matter, but being a very task oriented person, as long as I'm creating something, I'm happy. What I love most is drawing. Somehow my method or love for the medium has led me to animation. Oddly enough, I think I first became aware of it as a creative option in my attempt to stave off boredom in my liberal arts classes. I'd draw pictures on the edges of my notes and then try to make them "move" by quickly flipping through the pages. One thing led to another and suddenly I found myself wanting to make a career of it.



GE: Do you feel there is any hierarchy in different arts media - that a specific medium is considered a “higher” art than another form?

AC: I am not of the mindset that any type of art holds certain superiority over another. In my opinion, graffiti can be just as aesthetically valuable as any painting or sculpture. In terms of material worth in the art world, perhaps this doesn't hold true, but I believe different types of art influences people and society in different ways - you can't look at everything through the same lens. I try not to be prejudiced against any media; however, my own opinion of what I define and consider being art probably ends up leading me down that road.



GE: Your shiny-eyed, pig-tailed animation character – where did that concept come from?

AC: That creature came about as a series of doodles on an expo-marker board in my kitchen. It’s supposed to be used for notes, but I only doodle on it and this character in particular actually started out as a stick figure. It slowly involved into a stick figure with teeth and then a stick figure with a large mouthful of teeth and buggy eyes until it formed into a short pudgy creature that exclaimed whatever messages I needed to write down at the time. I didn't intend to develop a usable character from it, but I ended up forming something akin to an obsession. One day I decided to sit down and draw it out on paper. I suppose because of the length of time and amount of "drafts" it took me to develop it, the creature acquired a strong presence I sought out in my animated characters. Because of its comical proportions I decided to design an animation short around it. 

Essentially the story goes that you see this creature walking along a forest path. It stops when it finds a cupcake on the ground. It keeps walking and finding cupcakes until it stumbles upon a unicorn in a meadow where it watches the unicorn poop out the very same cupcakes it's been eating throughout the short. I can't even begin to tell you where this story concept came from or what the story infers about my mind.



GE: What animations from history do you admire most?


AC: Everybody and their mother would probably tell you Disney is it, as far as animation goes. Their movies are so iconic and account for a lot childhood memories. For me, though, I've always held a special spot for the old Looney Tunes animated by Chuck Jones. Looking back now watching Jerry shatter a wine bottle on a table to stab Tom in the bum probably isn’t kosher for a kid to watch by today's standard but I still love watching those same shows years later. 



GE: Your images of archaic columns have a mysterious nature to them. Can you discuss how these were created and/or what your goals were with these images were?


AC: This image is part of a series of photographs I created while in Venice for a summer abroad program I was accepted into through the Marist College Art Dept. The layout of Venice is both beautiful and kind of sad. It holds a lot of memories and the imprints of times long past. I think coming from New York makes the impact a little more intense – you’re coming from an extremely modern metropolis to a comparatively tiny area that still struggles with the idea of television. Walking through the decaying and aging streets of Venice put into perspective for me the issue of time and the human condition. I wanted to convey the reaction the architecture stirred in me to people back home, namely its relationship between time and the cycle of life and death.

GE: Do you like to share your works in progress with an audience/ fellow artists, or do you prefer to wait until a work is completed to present it to others? Do you think its important get feedback from others while a work is in progress?



AC: I suppose it depends on what I'm trying to do. For my animations I love getting feedback all the time. The most vital part to an animation for me is the crowds’ reaction. So to have different opinions throughout the whole process on the characters I'm developing or the composition of my storyboard panels, helps tremendously. In other instances like with a drawing or painting and sometimes with the technological side of animating I might try to keep the project close to my chest if know people won’t understand or see it in the manner I'm trying to portray until it develops further. In some cases everything doesn't come together until the near end and then I'll have people critique what works and what doesn't and work on from there. All in all though, constructive criticism is an important part of my work process. It doesn't necessarily mean I'll listen to what people have to say but I like knowing others thoughts all the same.



GE: How do you feel you’ve grown as an artist since beginning your professional studies?

AC: I suppose I’m more confident and driven in a way. When I first started out, I was timid and shy - maybe even a little fearful when it came to my work. I was scared to make mistakes. I remember the common worry of the time was, “What if it doesn’t come out right”? 

 I recall becoming really discouraged if a piece didn’t turn out exactly the way I intended. The problem was that I was too close to my work; I couldn’t step back and separate myself from it. I became to easily attached and it impaired my ability to experiment and thus learn, consequently blocking me from working on anything at all for periods of time. It’s been quite the process of trying to loosen up over the years, but I’m better for it and that “fear” has long since been abolished, though I’ll admit at times the old habit returns. My overall mindset, however, toward my methodology has changed and when those obsessive moments occur I can catch myself. It’s also helped a lot that I now have an idea of what I want to pursue. There was a point where I felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions without ever liking any of them enough to follow; I would become lost.  I kept on working through it all (even knowing then that the majority of what I produced was probably crap) and it kept my mind and hands busy until I was able to figure it all out.  So yeah, I’d say I’ve grown… maybe a better appreciation for my abilities and what I want to become and strive for in this life.