Words from the Artist

Words from the Artist is a series of interviews with various artist members of Houston Art Showcase by blog editor Ruth Armas. 

Our next featured artist, Vladimir Alexander, is discovering his place in the art world as a portrait painter and works out of his home studio in Houston. Alexander has shown his work at the Blaffer Art Museum and the Galveston Art League, and holds the ambition of his large scale art gaining recognition as a unique contribution to Houston’s growing art scene and community of artists.

"La Mirada" 36" x 48" Oil on Canvas - 2014
Vladimir Alexander

Vladimir, would you like to introduce yourself?

Hello, I’m Vladimir Alexandar and I have graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts degree in Studio Painting. I have been interested in drawing since I was five years old. My father would always buy me materials to encourage me and my interest in art continued all the way into high school. I began college courses at HCC and become serious about art after taking a life drawing class that focused on anatomy. Eventually, I continued onto the University of Houston and majored in fine arts. Drawing and illustration is where I started with art and eventually moved on to painting.  Since graduating, I have been painting portraits of families and sometimes pets by commission. I have also developed a skill of drawing three minute sketches and have sketched about a thousand since age fifteen.

Can you describe your work for us?

Portraits are my main focus right now. I like to paint them in large scale because I feel the larger size captures with more intensity the emotions that are being communicated in the person’s expression. I am also very motivated by the use of color in my portraits, and I feel that working in large scale allows me to use color more dramatically in my interpretation of the person’s character.  Abstract art is new for me and I have done a few paintings in this style. I feel abstract art is a style in which I can view the world and add my point of view by taking an image to a very simplified form.

What attracts you to painting?

I’m attracted to painting because of the medium I use. Working with oil paint is interesting because of how I am able to control it. It’s almost like a strategic game when I begin mixing colors from the time they are on my pallet and then on the canvas. When I am at a point where I feel comfortable with the colors I am working with, the mixing becomes like magic and I am in harmony with the medium.  

"Zapata and Villa" 4' x 4' Oil on Canvas - 2015

Vladimir Alexander

Can you tell us what “being creative” means to you and when you discovered it was something you had to do?

Being creative for me is simply having my sketch book with me at all times and keeping a diary of what I sketch. I look back at what I wrote about that sketch and begin to take it a step further. I become selective about the sketch depending on the person in their anatomy or a feature that appeals to me. Sometimes it is based on my relationship or connection with the person. This is why I was inspired to paint a portrait of my teacher from UH. I spent time with this person that was meaningful and memorable. I had an emotional response that I used for creativity to paint his portrait.

"Portrait of Rex Koontz" 12" x 24" Oil on Canvas - 2014

Vladimir Alexander

What kind of routine or ritual do you have before you begin a project? Do you have a creative cycle or process?

It is definitely a process that is not just physical, but emotional. It is also based on investigating or researching the person who I will paint. I also like to write down my thoughts as part of the process of putting myself into the composition.

When I begin the portrait, I like to have more than one picture of the person in order to build a background or story of the person and get a deeper understanding of who they are and why they want to have their portrait made. This story is basically the foundation and the beginning of my process. Also, I don’t like to listen to music when I paint. I listen instead to my emotions and inner rhythm of what I’m feeling in that moment.

Tell us about one of your favorite works and why you remember it?

The portrait of my father is my favorite. I feel it immortalizes and honors him. It is also my favorite because it holds the memory of the conversation he was having with me during the time I was painting it. 

"Portrait of My Father" 30" x 40" Oil on Canvas - 2013

Vladimir Alexander

Do you have a general message that you try to communicate with your art?

I really like to communicate through color. People interact with color and it’s not really a message that I try to communicate, but a response of emotion. I like to say that life is color…la vida es color; an appreciation of life and how we get to see all the colors in the world from the sky to the ground. We can see color in each other. This is why color is a main element in my large scale portraits. My attempt is to draw out a person’s features with color to show the character of the person more vividly.

What’s the best advice you've received, or that you can give us about how to nurture creativity?

I like to refer to a quote by Isaac Newton that a math teacher said once… “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of a giant.”

My father is my giant from what he has seen during his lifetime. My teachers are my giants as well because of their knowledge and experience. Nurturing creativity for me is by continuing to learn and experiment in the art of painting, and listening to artists who have experience and knowledge in the art world where I aspire to be.

Thank you Vladimir Alexander for taking the time to share your thoughts and ideas about yourself as an artist and your work. You can see and enjoy more of Vladimir’s work at his artist website. 

If you liked this post and found it helpful, please leave a comment and share with others to help support Houston Art Showcase artists.

A Talk About Color at The Mariago Collective

Two Women Two Arts Million Hearts   

As I walked in to hear the artist talk at The Mariago Collective, my first thought about the works present was how the colors in the paintings were so lively and abundant, and undoubtedly causing a profusion of emotional responses to anyone viewing them. Maybe it was all due to the brilliant colors on canvas intensely contrasting on the large spaces of the white walls. Or maybe it was the last hour of sunlight coming into the room from the wall of windows on the west side of the building that emitted a special radiance in the colors. Whichever the case, it was pretty clear to anyone in that room that the focal element of each work was the use of color, and once I shifted my attention to the two artists speaking, Naz Kaya Erdal and Suat Orgun, it soon became clear to me that the idea of color in art and their relationship with it was a repeating message in their conversation to the audience.

  

Untitled (Fall 1998) 2015, mixed media on canvas 35” x 47”, Naz Kaya Erdal (top)

Suat Ogrun (left) Naz Kaya Erdal (right)

First Introduction of Eminonu with the Historical Peninsula 203-2015, mixed media on canvas 22” x 14”, Suat Orgun (bottom)

I have to say that I have a strong affinity to most colors, especially when they are combined well. And being that the use of color in art is always my first attraction to a piece, I was already intrigued with each artist’s perspective regarding their relationship with color and how it influences their art as a principal element.

Erdal talked about how she sees colors as having a quality of personality in that each color has a unique character on the canvas, and therefore, we respond differently to each one. It is true that experiments have been conducted in order to understand how different colors affect us physically and psychologically. And there are certain facts even of how companies have used this understanding to persuade or discourage certain behaviors. Additionally for Erdal, color is the most important element that allows her to put emotions onto the surface of a canvas. She uses color to interpret the images that she holds in her mind which are also shaped by her emotions, experiences, memories, and hence, are able to appear on canvas.

The First Time When I Saw the Rainbow 2015, mixed media on canvas 39” x 39”, Naz Kaya Erdal

Similarly, Orgun shared that color is important for her in that the purpose of her art is to tell stories on a canvas. These are stories telling of the place or the city she is living in at the time. She tells the story of what she observes and feels around her. In addition, color plays an important role for her even in her dreams which she claims to see the images within her dreams in color. She remembers these colors from her dreams and recreates them in her art. Her dreams and her experiences are introspective reflections upon the world and people existing around her. These are her stories...all of our stories. Her mirror paintings have the purpose not only to serve as an artwork telling a story, but once we see our reflection in the mirror and linger there, we are incorporated into the art to see a new image all together on the canvas telling a new story.

Mirrors (1) 2013-2015, mixed media on canvas 36” x 36”, Suat Orgun

As I mentioned before about my attraction to color, this was definitely a show that “tugged at my art strings”. In observing the works of Erdal and Orgun, one might think that they are merely overly enthusiastic about using color in their art. But artists are quite intentional about color, as are others who understand the power of this visual element. If you are interested in seeing this show, it will be on display at The Mariago Collective until June 1^st. If you’re curious to know some facts about color, visit this blog page.

Written by blog editor, Ruth Armas