Something Rather Than Nothing

Episode 25 with LIZZY FALCON

Captivating, fascinating, unique, and soulful, describe Lizzy Falcon’s artwork. Lizzy's work has a whimsical, yet "emo-like" feeling. Thematic threads of her work are grey-toned girls with one big eye as "Big-Eye-Art" and the Lowbrow Art Movement have had a major impact on her, and she (usually) only exposes one eye: the left eye, as that is the eye that represents true emotion. Lizzy uses grey tones for her characters to avoid assigning them race or ethnicity, as all human should be permitted to relate to them, but they end up with a slight creepy look, and that's okay. Lizzy does not try to capture absolute realism in her works, preferring the fantastic and whimsical. Margaret Keane and Walt Disney have been her two biggest artistic influences. As a child, Keane's artwork adorned Lizzy's walls and inspired her to be an artist later in her life. Lizzy is a self-taught artist and mainly works with acrylics on canvas.  Lizzy has had the honor to show alongside some very talented artist from all around the world. In addition, buyers from all corners of the world have purchased Lizzy's paintings and sculptures. Whether Lizzy is painting, sculpting, or creating animated shorts of her characters, she is always creating something new.

http://lizzyfalconart.com/index.html

Episode 25 with LIZZY FALCON

Captivating, fascinating, unique, and soulful, describe Lizzy Falcon’s artwork. Lizzy's work has a whimsical, yet "emo-like" feeling. Thematic threads of her work are grey-toned girls with one big eye as "Big-Eye-Art" and the Lowbrow Art Movement have had a major impact on her, and she (usually) only exposes one eye: the left eye, as that is the eye that represents true emotion. Lizzy uses grey tones for her characters to avoid assigning them race or ethnicity, as all human should be permitted to relate to them, but they end up with a slight creepy look, and that's okay. Lizzy does not try to capture absolute realism in her works, preferring the fantastic and whimsical. Margaret Keane and Walt Disney have been her two biggest artistic influences. As a child, Keane's artwork adorned Lizzy's walls and inspired her to be an artist later in her life. Lizzy is a self-taught artist and mainly works with acrylics on canvas.

Lizzy is opening the Lotus Gallery and Art center, Grand Opening May 2, 2020.

Rosalie Fish is a member of the Muckleshoot and Cowlitz tribes and is a competitive runner and college student. Rosalie made national headlines when she painted a red hand over her face in order to represent Missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW). She also painted the MMIW hashtag on her leg and ran races for specific Indigenous women. Her actions of bravery have helped spark greater awareness about this issue and the issue of violence within a larger North American historical context.

Rosalie and I talk about Native Art, philosophical questions, running, something and nothing and making a difference. 

Rosalie is a hero and an inspiration. 

https://www.washington.edu/news/2022/04/14/rosalie-fish-student-athlete-and-activist-selected-as-truman-scholar/

Rosalie Fish is a member of the Muckleshoot and Cowlitz tribes and is a competitive runner and college student. Rosalie made national headlines when she painted a red hand over her face in order to represent Missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW). She also painted the MMIW hashtag on her leg and ran races for specific Indigenous women. Her actions of bravery have helped spark greater awareness about this issue and the issue of violence within a larger North American historical context.

Rosalie and I talk about Native Art, philosophical questions, running, something and nothing and making a difference.

Rosalie is a hero and an inspiration. 

You are really going to enjoy this deep dive into profound questions with Canadian Artist MAGDOLENE DYKSTRA. Her work with clay prompts the viewer to consider profound questions of ecology, elementals, growth, decay, the climate and art. I really love her Artist Statement that helps to describe the sheer profundity of her project . . .

A desire to understand my place in the universe drives my work. Using sculpture and installation, my work meditates on the unfathomable multiplicity of humanity. My compositions are inspired by microbiology, finding lineage in the Romantic artists of the 19th century who used their paintings to evoke the sublime by reminding the viewer of their diminutive status in relation to grand landscapes. In contrast to macro landscapes, I site the sublime in microbial terrain. In a time of environmental endangerment, my aesthetic of cellular accumulation references the vast numbers of the human race, swarming beyond what is sustainable. I compose my work using primarily unfired clay, imparting these roiling masses with precarity to reflect on the fragility of our collective existence. 

Whatt is the role of the individual within the horde?

My sculpted paintings merge my interest in the foreign terrain of microbiology with an examination of what Barnett Newman called the “abstract sublime”. These works reference Abstract Expressionism’s use of immense scale to evoke feelings of transcendence. Within my work, each individual is absurdly insignificant except for its interconnectedness to everything around them. Gathered en masse, these lifeforms overwhelm the structure upon which they grow. Drawing on the ephemeral works of land artist Richard Long, my Interventions contextualize the microbial forms in the landscape. Despite the accumulating number of cells in each Intervention, they cannot withstand the elements, ultimately returning to the earth.

Just as prehistoric artists recorded their presence using pigments of the earth, I use clay to explore my relationship to the earth and the universe. Sculpture, installation, and drawing allow me to make the unseen tangible. Using clay connects me to rituals and cultures throughout human history. This primordial material bears the memory of the earliest artists, all the way back to the cave of Le Tuc d’Audoubert in France, where a bull and cow sculpted in raw clay have lain for about 15,000 years. I am one of many makers throughout human history who uses this material to explore my link to the rest of the universe. Instead of relying on the ability of fired clay to withstand time, I use raw clay in order to embrace ephemerality. Impermanence enhances preciousness. The things that don’t last demand more careful attention.

http://magdolenedykstra.com/

You are really going to enjoy this deep dive into profound questions with Canadian Artist MAGDOLENE DYKSTRA. Her work with clay prompts the viewer to consider profound questions of ecology, elementals, growth, decay, the climate and art. I really love her Artist Statement that helps to describe the sheer profundity of her project . . .

A desire to understand my place in the universe drives my work. Using sculpture and installation, my work meditates on the unfathomable multiplicity of humanity. My compositions are inspired by microbiology, finding lineage in the Romantic artists of the 19th century who used their paintings to evoke the sublime by reminding the viewer of their diminutive status in relation to grand landscapes. In contrast to macro landscapes, I site the sublime in microbial terrain. In a time of environmental endangerment, my aesthetic of cellular accumulation references the vast numbers of the human race, swarming beyond what is sustainable. I compose my work using primarily unfired clay, imparting these roiling masses with precarity to reflect on the fragility of our collective existence.

Whatt is the role of the individual within the horde?

My sculpted paintings merge my interest in the foreign terrain of microbiology with an examination of what Barnett Newman called the “abstract sublime”. These works reference Abstract Expressionism’s use of immense scale to evoke feelings of transcendence. Within my work, each individual is absurdly insignificant except for its interconnectedness to everything around them. Gathered en masse, these lifeforms overwhelm the structure upon which they grow. Drawing on the ephemeral works of land artist Richard Long, my Interventions contextualize the microbial forms in the landscape. Despite the accumulating number of cells in each Intervention, they cannot withstand the elements, ultimately returning to the earth.

Just as prehistoric artists recorded their presence using pigments of the earth, I use clay to explore my relationship to the earth and the universe. Sculpture, installation, and drawing allow me to make the unseen tangible. Using clay connects me to rituals and cultures throughout human history. This primordial material bears the memory of the earliest artists, all the way back to the cave of Le Tuc d’Audoubert in France, where a bull and cow sculpted in raw clay have lain for about 15,000 years. I am one of many makers throughout human history who uses this material to explore my link to the rest of the universe. Instead of relying on the ability of fired clay to withstand time, I use raw clay in order to embrace ephemerality. Impermanence enhances preciousness. The things that don’t last demand more careful attention.

Anne Bujold combines metalsmithing and blacksmithing techniques with alternative materials such as felt, ribbon, and plastics. 

In her sculpture, animals are agents examining the spaces between definitions, that fertile ground where new forms emerge.

Bujold is currently the Artist-In-Residence for the Metals Department at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN. She received her MFA from the Craft and Material Studies Department at Virginia Commonwealth University (2018) and BFA from Oregon College of Art and Craft (2008). 

Previously based in Portland, Oregon, she operated Riveted Rabbit Studio, a custom metal fabrication business.

Bujold has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University (VA), Oregon College of Art and Craft (OR), The Multnomah Art Center (OR), The Donkey Mill Art Center (HI), The Appalachian Center for Craft (TN), and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (TN). 

https://annebujold.com/

Anne Bujold combines metalsmithing and blacksmithing techniques with alternative materials such as felt, ribbon, and plastics.

In her sculpture, animals are agents examining the spaces between definitions, that fertile ground where new forms emerge.

Bujold is currently the Artist-In-Residence for the Metals Department at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN. She received her MFA from the Craft and Material Studies Department at Virginia Commonwealth University (2018) and BFA from Oregon College of Art and Craft (2008). 

Previously based in Portland, Oregon, she operated Riveted Rabbit Studio, a custom metal fabrication business.

Bujold has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University (VA), Oregon College of Art and Craft (OR), The Multnomah Art Center (OR), The Donkey Mill Art Center (HI), The Appalachian Center for Craft (TN), and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (TN). 

GERALD ROULETTE is native of Missouri and a graduate of Truman State University (BFA). He has been involved with art since kindergarten and was accepted into an art school in Arizona at 12 years of age. 

Roulette studied art in Strasbourg, Austria under the tutelage of Dr. William Unger and Oscar Kokoshka. He has earned multiple awards for his artwork and has lectured at colleges, universities and high schools across the USA. 

Roulette has worked as a high school 2-D art educator and football/track coach for 19 years. He has exhibited his work in the US and Europe. 

 A former NFL player, he has lived in Texas and moved to Portland, Oregon three years ago. “Art is my way of capturing life. My sketchbook is a diary. Colors are feelings, and each stroke is an experience.” 

https://www.instagram.com/geraldaroulette/

GERALD ROULETTE is native of Missouri and a graduate of Truman State University (BFA). He has been involved with art since kindergarten and was accepted into an art school in Arizona at 12 years of age. 

His painting ‘The Great I Am’ is currently on display at Concordia University (Portland, OR, USA)