April 16, 2020 at 10:15 a.m.
ArtStart launches virtual tour featuring abstract art
By Stephanie Kuski-
The newest exhibition at ArtStart in Rhinelander, on display until May 9, emanates the aesthetic energies of the two Midwest artists whose work is featured. While ArtStart had to close its doors to the public due to COVID-19, the exhibitions are still available for the public to enjoy via an online virtual tour created by local multimedia artist and ArtStart volunteer Nate Sheppard. The virtual tour - available via ArtStart's website and associated media platforms - showcases the curated exhibit and spotlights vignettes written by the artists narrating their creative imagination.
Daniel Fleming is a budget-conscious artist from Milwaukee who uses a colorful palette to explore varying themes while Martin Rowe, a British-born artist, complements Fleming with his polychromatic geometric paintings.
Both artists participated in ArtStart's "Artist Talk" event on March 7, in which they were able to share the inspiration behind their work and offer advice to aspiring artists.
"It was very successful," Ashley McLaughlin, ArtStart's program and operations director, said of the event.
The two gallery spaces complement each other well and add a much-needed spark of color to the ArtStart gallery for their spring exhibition, she added.
"It was a pleasant surprise," McLaughlin said. "We generally try to seek color this time of year, just for audience members to really have bright and cheery art that they can come in and view."
Daniel Fleming - "Confronting Our Perspective"
A graphic designer at Epic Creative by day and a studio painter by night, Fleming said the act of creating art has always held an important place in his life, and is a passion he hopes to continue pursuing.
"Art for me has always been something I've wanted to do," Fleming said. "It's really self-inspired and almost a compulsive behavior to paint."
In his ArtStart exhibit, "Confronting Our Perspective, Fleming's one-of-a-kind style spotlights strong, bold colors which reveal a mosaic of motifs peppered throughout. He utilizes a variety of styles and types of canvas to achieve different textures by painting layers on top of each other, drawing the eye to specific aspects of each painting.
"Part of my philosophy and the way I make art overall is really just trying not to be too restrictive about anything," Fleming explained. "Through allowing myself to do that, I've found some surfaces I really like that are kind of untraditional. I really like when you can get the texture of a canvas to show through - I think the texture of that combined with the paint and whatever other materials I'm using really adds to the painting."
"Fleming has paintings on wooden boards, tarp and canvases," McLaughlin added. "In one of his pieces, the bottom part is painted on a tarp and the top part is painted on a canvas. He is a very budget-conscious artist - he does a lot of layering with his paint, so if he doesn't like something in his painting he's not afraid to paint over it."
That sense of experimentation is readily apparent in Fleming's work. His art reflects the last few years of his career, during which time he had ample opportunity to focus on trying new things, he said.
"It's an open exploration of paintings, materials, imagery and really discovering the painting myself, which is part of what I really enjoy doing," Fleming explained. "I think it's intimidating to people this idea that there's some underlying message and if you don't get it, 'you don't know enough' or 'you're not smart enough' or 'you just don't get art.'"
"But what I want people to do with my paintings is kind of figure it out for themselves and then maybe talk to me about it and we'll see how our interpretations differ," he continued. "I think you can learn a lot about yourself and other people by seeing how they interpret the same thing you're looking at in a different or a similar way.... While they might not get exactly the message and references I was making, they still reach the same emotional conclusion."
During the Artist Talk, McLaughlin said Fleming reflected on the idea that nothing in his canvas is permanent - he might not love part of his canvas, but he's not afraid to paint over it or let the colors blend together in unexpected ways.
"(Fleming) talked about one piece specifically in which the paints ran together and created like a pink blob at the bottom," McLaughlin explained. "He went over it with finer detail and made those blobs into people sitting on the floor. So he just embraced what naturally happened in his painting and was able to add another layer to it and find something really special in his painting from a complete accident."
"There's a lot of times where I end up painting over something five or six times," Fleming added, "and that texture that gets built up actually ends up being what I like about the painting, and I can't intend to do that... Allowing chance has always been a big part of the way I make things."
Martin Rowe - "Between The Lines"
Originally from Great Britain, Rowe came full circle in this latest exhibit, having been a co-founder of ArtStart at its inception and now is one of the local artists on display.
"I was one of the founding members of ArtStart," Rowe explained. "Ken (Juon) and I basically knocked the old building down internally and rebuilt it. I basically took a year off to work on ArtStart."
"Most of my life has been spent as a teacher at a university teaching graphic design and illustration," he continued. "I've always done painting in the background, but never as the major focus. It's only recently I've been focusing completely on painting."
Rowe explores color combinations with structural landscapes, bestowing each piece with a creative energy entirely its own. He employs various textures in his paintings using varied brush strokes and palette knives, and by painting over semi-dried paint to achieve several different textures.
In doing so, his experimentation resulted in bright, bold colors in "Bath For a Sinner" but a softer, muted palette for "Figure in the Landscape."
While Rowe and Fleming differ greatly in their individual styles, both artists commented on how the process of painting is often more important than the final product.
"Both artists talked about the story they have with their art and how they talk to each piece individually; how it is very therapeutic for them to create abstract collage," McLaughlin said. "They can have a bad day or they can be cut off in traffic, and they can just go paint and release all of their emotions from that experience."
"It's an interesting process," Rowe added. "Each painting you have a conversation with - if you make one move or put one color down, it affects everything else. So I often start off with one idea but often end up somewhere very different."
"It's that conversation you have internally about making creative decisions, and that's why I paint," he continued. "That's the fun, and as soon as it's finished it's almost irrelevant. I mean I like to look at the paintings for a while," he laughed, "but once it's finished, the process is finished... the actual painting process that I really like."
In recalling the Artist Talk, McLaughlin said Rowe spoke at great length about the inspiration behind his art, reflecting on his father's influence during his youth.
"When Martin (Rowe) was a very young boy, he would be coloring in a coloring book and his dad would be watching him," McLaughlin explained. "He would show it to his dad, and his dad would say 'that's great son, but what would happen to your picture if you put moss on that tree, how would it change the picture?'"
"So his dad was always gently encouraging him to experiment a little bit and to add more," she continued. "You don't just need to color in the lines, that's not all that art is - you can embellish."
Rowe said this experience triggered a creative process which has propelled his artistic energy forward ever since.
To take in the unique creativity of both exhibits from home, visit http://artstartrhinelander.org/virtualgallery/.
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