A Site for Emerging Artists
Featured Artists
Featured Artist Sarah Tomlin
Sep 5th
Artist Statement
Sarah Tomlin was born and raised in East Texas and recently moved to Northwest Arkansas with her husband. Being raised in a small town and living in the city, Sarah is able to capture the essence of both worlds in her art. She is completely self-taught and has garnered much praise. She has been showcased on websites, in local businesses, and her work has recently been published in the Palette Art League’s Book of Artists from the Ozarks. Her point of interest is landscape and still life, but she also has a love for portraiture as well. Sarah embraces all types and genres of art and incorporates that into her artwork. For her, photography isn’t just a hobby, it’s a passion.
Goals: My goal as a photographer is to evolve. To constantly and endlessly see things people normally take for granted and capture that thought and that feeling forever. My background is medical. I always knew that I loved art, it just never occurred to me that one day I would be so engrossed in it. It is very fulfilling to capture a beautiful moment and share it with another person who can love it as much as you.
Currently working on: I am currently preparing for a show and am in the process of matting and framing several pieces. I’m discovering more and more my passion for digital editing and am always editing old photographs, and experimenting with various programs. I am also starting to delve deeper into studio photography.
What inspires me: Everything. The faces of strangers. Rusty metal. Dead trees. Abandoned buildings. Color. Other photographers. You can find inspiration in any old thing. You just have to look past what you think it is.
See more of Sarah Tomlin’s portfolio and her inspiration by visiting her website.
Featured Artist Scott McLeod
Sep 1st
Featured artist Scott McLeod is a young abstract painter with ambitious career plans. Check out his website for more about Scott and to view his full portfolio.
What are your goals?
I’m a man of many goals, I want to write a book some time within the next ten years and I also want to accomplish many things with my artwork. I enjoy sharing ideas and my creations with others, my only goals are orientated on how much I was able to spread them.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a series of unique pieces which utilize old large frames which I have re-done with my own touches. I’m currently finished up with my third piece, with goals to accomplish six or seven before releasing them. I’m also in the middle of launching my clothing company Coeus Clothing.
What inspires you?
The world around me, understanding. Emotions inspire me, in others or my self, seeing raw human emotion, understanding that emotion, and the collection of things which cannot be expressed by words. I often find inspiration out of nowhere, a quick sprint to my garage to add the next layer, or the six hours straight of finishing multiple paintings. Inspiration is a cumulative thing for me, and the more I explore this world the more I find.
Featured Artist Sarah Love Park
Aug 26th
Artsy Shark presents emerging artist Sarah Love Park. Like what you see? Get more information and see her portfolio here.
Artist Statement
I love painting and pressing oil colours on a white canvas as much as I enjoy pressing the strings of my violin.
I especially like to work with impressionistic colours and cartoon-like bold lines in an improvisational manner.
Most of my inspiration stems from my inner passion for art and music which, in turn, is based on love and peace. My early paintings were done while I was living near Lincoln Centre and Juilliard Music School in New York City, such as my series of Violinists and Cellists. My Galaxy Series are my earliest works and were inspired by childhood memories of star-filled nights.
My current project is “Love” where my art continues to evolve as I travel the world.
Biography
Park’s early artworks were inspired by classical music which was emphasized as she was learning to play violin, living close to New York’s Lincoln Centre. Her vibrant series of Violinist and Cellist paintings continue to be well received. The earliest paintings, from the Galaxy series, sold immediately when finished – even before the paint completely dried.
Much of her inspiration comes from childhood in South Korea, raised as a suburbanite in neighbourhoods filled with spring cherry blossoms, sky-filled stars in the summer nights, lazy days with dragonflies criss-cross through pure blue skies, the cornucopia of colours contained in autumn foliage, along with the white wonderland of winter.
Some of her earlier works show a visual inspiration from her recollection of her visit to Europe and most prominently, the Versailles Palace. Park was also influenced by Leo Tolstoy, Claude Monet, Mozart, Chopin and Sarah Chang – the Korean-American violin virtuoso.
Sarah’s passion propelled her move to New York City, long considered the universe’s centre for aspiring artists. As an accomplished child poet, Park’s paintings are inevitably poetic, with an astronomical influence, where the stars of the universe will be forever captured in her heart.
Park is also a fashion designer for “Confident Couture” a clothing manufacturer with world-wide distribution.
What are your goals?
I support the dream: travelling into space, world peace, happiness, and love. I am happiest when I finish a good painting; therefore, I would like to continue my journey as an artist and continue to travel and paint.
What are you working on now?
I have two projects: One is “Stop the Child Abuse” for my next exhibition in September, and the other is a “Landscape” project. I have just arrived in England from Germany and the weather and countryside are perfect for landscapes.
What inspires you?
Nature and people inspire me. Additionally peace, love and music.
Featured Artist Nashay Jones
Aug 22nd
I am Nashay.
Nyela.
Painter, printmaker, mixed media artist.
I am not sure where my initial interest in art came from. Maybe it was the murals that seem to be almost everywhere in my hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or the stories I felt I needed to tell to help keep an emotional foothold in times I’ve struggled and words seemed inadequate. Regardless of its source, art has become and indelible part of my life.
Artist’s Statement
In painting, printmaking, collage, and mixed media, I examine my own life. Through this lens I hope to explore themes universal to the human experience: silence, separation, love, fear, growth, birth, rebirth. I seek freedom, healing, and life. In trying to find my voice, I endeavor, as Frida Kahlo said, “to paint my own reality” as a woman, as a black person, as queer, as a sister, as a lover, a friend, a daughter . . . as me.
I am fascinated with the surreal, the symbolic, the human figure, and the personal narrative, as well as with the shared experience we each add to the human collective. I am inspired by the act of creating and by the tasks of being and becoming that are at once deeply personal and inherently universal. I am nourished as well by both the ancient and contemporary ideas and art of the many cultures born of the African diaspora.
Having just wrapped up a year of service as a City Year (a program of AmeriCorps) corps member, I believe I have found a focus for my art. I want my art to do service. I want to work alongside individuals and communities to tell their stories and inspire action. I am currently researching ways to do this. Maybe it will begin with helping to paint some of those murals I previously mentioned, but I have a feeling that there is more; there just has to be.
What are my goals?
My biggest goal is finding ways that my art can do service. I believe that the first way I can do that is to allow my experiences as one who has served to inform and inspire new art, as well as doing the research to find out ways I can get involved with those who are already using art to serve.
I want to apply to residencies that encourage art-making as part of the teaching and learning experience.
I want to begin to examine my own relationship to myself as a sexual being through my art. I have experienced much in my early life that skewed my perception of myself in this regard, and I am only beginning to realize that there is much more of me to uncover, to cherish, and to celebrate.
What inspires me?
Artists and thinkers I’ve read and studied: Frida Kahlo, Faith Ringgold, Audre Lorde, Richard Wright, Diego Rivera, Kara Walker, bell hooks, Pablo Picasso, Kerry James Marshall, Gauguin, Goya, Dali, Jung.
I am also inspired by stories: those I read in novels, newspapers, see from my front window, and gather from conversations with friends and strangers.
I am inspired by music, art, history, fantasy, my dreams, my nightmares. In short, everything and nothing.
See more of Nashay’s portfolio, poetry and her thoughts by visiting her blog and her Etsy shop.
Featured Artist Michael Vincent Manalo
Aug 18th
Artsy Shark presents artist and photographer Michael Vincent Manalo. He writes his biography and answers questions about his fascinating projects and inspirations. Please visit his website to see more of his work.
I was born in Manila, Philippines in December 15, 1986 to Benedicto Manalo and Maria Ruth Enriquez. My parents, who both have different blood lines (my father being half American and my mother having her roots from Spain) have great talents. My father was a great basketball player during his time and has won many awards, my mom was a great singer who has joined a lot of contests and got popular in her city for quite some time. I got their talents, but never excelled in any of them. I never did play basketball since I suffered from a trauma after being hit in the face with the ball when I was a kid. I did however, formed a band and played at friend’s parties and in a battle of the bands concert at college. I still play at gigs at present – I’m a solo performer and go by the name of Benedicto and I play experimental guitar tapping music inspired by great artists like Erik Mongrain and Andy Mckee.
I didn’t realize that my mind would be captured by the magic of art because I thought I would be focusing on music my whole life. Art is was one of my favorite hobbies when I was younger; I used to illustrate and doodle a lot when I was in grade school and high school. I used colored pencils even for coloring. I tried using watercolor or pastels but it never worked for me. I got frustrated and that was the time when I started focusing my time on music since I thought art wasn’t my medium of expression.
It suddenly came to me that I liked art more than music when I got my first DSLR – a Canon EOS 300d as a gift from my older brother on my 20th birthday. I started taking my camera everywhere with me and because I had little time (I had to take a 9 to 5 job), most of what I shot were mostly in the street photography genre, that is until one day I tried to manipulate images based on what I think, on what I imagine, on what I feel, on what I dream about and from inspiring images that I see daily.
I created images every night after work back then. I played a lot with Photoshop and studied some tutorials on the web until I found my style.
Its funny because the degree I took in college is a Medical degree, more specifically a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. I took it due to pressures from within the family circle. I never liked taking up that course, it was a waste of time if you look at it directly but it wasn’t since I learned a lot about myself and what I really wanted.
I remember one time at college when there was this activity where you had to stick a piece of paper on your back and have some random people write their first impression on you. Some people said I’m cool, some say I’m mysterious, some even said I’m weird but most of the comments I got was – quiet. Yes, I’m a quiet person, until you get to know me better. What those random people wrote on the paper on my back was completely opposite to what my high school friends know about me. To my high school friends, I was a person who made the class laugh a lot and do some crazy things to get attention and sometimes do some pranks to random people.
What are your goals?
For living on this earth for 23 years, the most common goal I had since my mind was not yet fully developed until now, was the dream to be the one who would inspire. I’ve always dreamed of inspiring people to create amazing things, or pieces from their dreams to the mediums they are familiar with.
I also aspire to be included in the ranks of the masters in this huge field we call art.
What are you working on now?
At the moment, I am currently working on a personal photography project entitled: “365 days – A collection of everyday photographs from inside the bedroom to the world.”
What inspires you?
Inspiration for me comes from a lot of different sources. It may start from hauntingly vivid dreams, to nostalgic memories, to wild emotions, to painful moments, to melancholic days, to the untapped and unknown windows inside my soul, to the stillness and quietness of a place to mere words from thy lips. A lot of images come to my mind everyday from a lot of sources, I just have to catch them all and create them as I saw them.
