The Striking Imagery of Unda Arte

Through social media I stumbled upon the striking images being shared by a pair of artists from Sweden, Marie Lundvall and Peder Bjoerk, who called themselves or their fine art photography Unda Arte. This past spring I reached out to Lundvall, and Estonian-Swede, and inquired as to their interest in being interviewed. She replied yes, but indicated that they were exceptionally busy at the time and that perhaps later in the year would be more suitable. It is my pleasure to introduce them here and now.

EN: What is Unda Arte and how did it begin?

Marie: Unda Arte is a collaboration between the two of us, an art duo. We met once upon a time in a library... By then both of us had been doing art and music on and off in private for more than 20 years. We also discovered that we shared the same ideas.

Peder: Unda Arte started when we discovered that Marie's photos – taken with a cell phone - were better than a professional photographer's ditto of the same object. I photographed intensively at the end of the 80s, before the digital era. Unda Arte was the right context to explore photography in a new way.

EN: Tell us a little about the working process. 

Peder: Many of our photographs are taken during excursions to interesting places. Sometimes we bring props, sometimes the whole art process is taking place in the computer. Most of the time both of us work with all the photos, improving each other's pictures.

Marie: We use software, such as Paint.net, Gimp, Photoscape, Picasa, only to name a few. We always use more than two programmes for the same photo...

EN: What mediums do you work in? I see photography... what else?

Peder: Painting and sculpture, sometimes mixed media. For “In the Studio” paint, sculpture and photography are combined. The software Marie mentioned also contains different painting devices that are useful!

EN: Who have been your personal biggest influences?

Urban Exploration

Marie: I tend to return to David Lynch. I also love théatre de l'absurde, especially the playwright Eugène Ionesco. Frightening absurdism is very interesting, when the balance between comedy and tragedy leans towards either side, depending on who you are... Take a look at “Fortress in water” in this article...

Peder: Our inspiration comes from art, film, literature, science, early industrial music... European film has inspired me deeply, with names like Andrei Tarkovsky and Šarūnas Bartas.

EN: How large is “The Icarus Incident”? What medium is this piece produced with?

Peder: All of our photographs are 8.3 x 5.9 in., i.e. 15 x 21 cm. That’s intentional. The audience should explore our photographs at close quarters...

It is funny - most of the time an artwork takes a few days, sometimes a week or two to create. Then there are exceptions... “The Icarus Incident” was made in Paint.net and Photoscape. It only took about an hour.

EN: What is the role of artists in our post-modern world?

In the Studio

Peder: Today it is easy to present your art electronically, but it is also easy to drown. Uniqueness is therefore more important today and the artist should scrutinize his or her intentions, aesthetics and marketing methods. Yesterday, people often talked about the role of the artist as an enfant terrible. However, we find almost nothing provocative anymore. Coming up with new hybrids, different techniques and new aesthetics is always very interesting...

Marie: Right. Unda Arte started out as a postmodern phenomenon; we wanted to contribute to bridging the gap between popular culture and high culture. It brings people and culture together. The transformation brings about new aesthetics, without automatically making the art more superficial, with the message kept intact. Besides, high culture is not always “deep”...

In the Shadow of the Future

Many artists are active in many areas in order to survive, that’s fruitful for the cultural sphere. Doing art for rock bands etc. may be important for the survival. In a European perspective, the context of an artist is occasionally more provocative than the artworks. Artists presenting themselves and making their art visible for a larger audience, using social medias in marketing their art (as commodities), is still less acceptable in Europe than in the U.S. However, this is about to change - today there are many older European artists on Facebook, marketing their art.

I've seen that art actually may help people sometimes. Inspiration and consolation – that you are not alone – are, of course, important aspects. Artists may also evoke important questions; sometimes people may confront their own ideas, perhaps also one or two prejudices. That can be developing and emancipatory. Artists may also take up issues about society, pointing at stupid or tragic situations, taking part of a larger discourse, more or less in public. However, happenings etc. - the funny side of art - is also needed. It can, of course, be intertwined with the more serious side I just mentioned. That feels natural for us.

Telling small stories, in several layers of interpretation, is another important driving force for Unda Arte.

Peder: Yes. Art is not documentary, but it can really relate to reality in a particular way... No matter what kind of artist you are, an authentic core.., genuineness, is always important.

EN: What are you working on now?

Marie: We are always doing many different things..! I've been writing a lot lately and we have been preparing for the expo.

Peder: Yes, we are collaborating with a composer, working on an expo with an important theme...

Marie: It will be multimedia art, combining visual art with non-visual elements...

TO SEE MORE of Unda Arte, visit their website at undaarte.com.

Fermentation in the Twin Ports Arts Scene

According to Wikipedia, zymology is the study of zymurgy, the area of applied science related to fermentation. It deals with the biochemical processes involved in fermentation, with yeast selection and physiology, and with the practical issues of brewing. French chemist Louis Pasteur was the first zymologist, making the connection between yeast and fermentation, originally defining this process as "respiration without air." The breads and wines we enjoy and just two of the results of this process, among many others.

Fermentation is a process that involves time and the right conditions. And it's my observation that some things have been fermenting in the Twin Ports art community that bring a promise of much good for the future of our region. I see it in the new galleries with their monthly gallery hops. (Tonight you can go out on the town and take in four art openings, for example, from Washington Galleries and Ochre Ghost to The PROVE and across the bridge at the Red Mug.) I see it in the increased amount of public places where art is on display. And I see it in some of the activity amongst local people who are passionate about the arts meeting behind the scenes and online via the emergence of social media.

On Monday evening the Twin Ports Gallery Group convened at the Depot again with Duluth Art Institute curator Anne Dugan leading the team. Discussions have been underway to coordinate arts activities to make it easier for the public to learn more about what's happening here and take more of it in, beneficial to both the public and the arts.

Last night DAI executive director Kristen Duckart brought together an entirely different group of people whose passions revolve around the arts, Twin Ports Arts Align. The group includes people from the visual arts, music, symphony, theater and the university. Co-chair in the newly forming group is Crystal Pelkey of the Zeppa Foundation. You will most assuredly be hearing more from this group as the ideas ferment.

On the Superior side of the bridge I was able to attend an equally exciting meeting. (yes, meetings can be exciting!) An City of Superior/Douglas County assessment has been taking place this week. A team of professionals had been brought in to meet with and listen to the various constituencies that have a stake in the future of the city and county. To its tremendous credit, one of the constituencies was the artists. On Wednesday afternoon approximately 25 artists and people with a stake in the arts had a chance to answer questions about the problems and challenges in the community, the strengths and assets here, and the projects they would like to see in the future if there were no barriers.

In my opinion, this kind of dialogue was utterly refreshing and a model that should be adopted in every community. The necessity of incorporating the arts and aesthetics into the very fabric of a community's DNA seems obvious. Unfortunately, it has not been obvious as our society seems to have forgotten the important contributions made by artists in our buildings, living spaces, and the personal development of young minds.

As Kristen Duckart noted in last night's Arts Align group, “We’ve got something awesome going. Let’s not let this fall apart.” There seemed to be universal buy-in to this sentiment. John Heino noted how Art makes people multi-dimensional and is a necessary component in a truly full-orbed education. “We’re on a dangerous path if we make arts dispensable.”

Another person at the table added that the four C’s of an educational foundation are Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity. When I look around at the caliber of people at these various meetings, I see all four of these C's displayed , and am hopeful for our future. It's in our hands to make it happen. And you're invited to be part of it. Dream big.

Top Right: Kristen Duckart addresses first formal meeting of the Twin Ports Arts Align.

Themes

"A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing." ~William Dobell

A lot of people have asked me if my show has a theme, or what kind of art I do. It was always hard to answer that since my work goes in a lot of directions. Eventually, I came to answer that my paintings and drawings were "in the modernist style." It is not classical, baroque or art nouveau, nor is it realism, landscape or still life. I can't call it abstract because much of it is representational to some extent. Certainly the portraits of Lincoln and Sitting Bull are straight up portraits.

As for themes, we have a friend who does gnomes. And some people do flowers. In American art, the major themes might include scenes from everyday life, historical subjects, abstract art, landscapes. Jackson Pollock did the large splatter paintings which brought him fame and fortune in the modern art world. Warhol did the screen printing work with its focus on pop culture, creating iconic images of Marilyn Monroe and soup cans.

Although there is a variety of styles in this show, one can't help but notice upon deeper reflection that certain themes emerge. One of these is the theme of suffering. We live in a broken world. Pieces like Scars Remain and Chase Ends In Suicide show the chaos of our culture, and a paintings like Grief and Sad Clown likewise show the personal impact this brokenness has.

Another theme, which may or may not be immediately recognized, is the underlying sense of the comic. I like making funny pictures, and also enjoy toying with people a little. My found art piece Tribute to DuChamp was intended to bring a wry smile to art connoisseurs, though I have now learned that most people do not know who DuChamp was any more. Nearly everyone gets a kick out of The Great Escape, a small brush and ink drawing of a man crawling on his knees with a guilty expression.

The most important thing to me is that people who walk the show take time to engage each piece, which might be an impossibility in light of the quantity. Someone once said that "the holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it." I can relate to that. I'm honored when people get drawn in, engage, interact. Too much of life is lived on the surface, and so it is that once in a while we need to get jarred, to be made to pause, to reflect... not only on the piece, but on that which is occurring within themselves as they engage the piece.

Or maybe I'm just trying to share a little about what I like to do when I get away from it all while others go fishing. Some people might just call it glorified doodling. It satisfies a need. Sharing my work, and seeing people enjoy it, satisfies a second.

Have a great day! Hopefully the rain will have stopped when you walk from your cars to the show tonight.

Blue Van Gogh

"Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitrary use of color to express myself more forcefully." ~ Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo.

We remember him as somewhat of a madman. And to a certain extent his behavior warranted this. He cut off his ear, for love. A bit excessive, though it made for an interesting self-portrait afterwards. On another occasion he was determined to see the girl he loved but her parents would not let him in. To show them how intent he was on seeing her, he held the palm of his hand over the lamp flame and said he would not leave till he saw her. The smell of burnt flesh was not very convincing and ultimately he passed out from the pain.

This story reveals that he was indeed a man of intense passions, which poured out of him into his works, works now valued in the millions of dollars. During his lifetime he sold almost nothing, and died in a mental institution in his thirties by his own hand.

As for the source of his mental illness, psychiatrists by the score have studied his behavior and his work to identify its root causes, whether from schizophrenia or syphilis or some other variety of experience. What we know is the notion of "artist as eccentric" found a home in the pop psyche, a notion that treats artists as kooks and social misfits.

Dorothea Brande, in her outstanding volume Becoming A Writer (1934), assaults this notion head on. "The picture of the artist as a monster made up of one part vain child, one part suffering martyr and one part boulevardier is a legacy to us from the last century, and a remarkably embarrassing inheritance. There is an earlier and healthier idea of the artist than that, the idea of the genius as a man more versatile, more sympathetic, more studious than his fellows, more catholic in his tastes, less at the mercy of the ideas of the crowd."

OK, so Salvador Dali comes along and portrays this vain child-madman to the extreme and makes a fortune doing it. No comment. Brande went on to explain that there really is "an artist temperament" and it is not the same as the accounting mindset. The book goes into detail about left brain/right brain thinking, a concept which became excessively popular in the 1980's and has filtered its way into business books, consulting, education and psychology. The notions have been with us a much longer time than many folks realize.

What Brande argues is that you do not have to be mentally unstable to be creative. In this instance she is speaking to young writers, but the same applies to creative souls in the visual arts or music as well.

Vincent Van Gogh once said, "A good picture is equivalent to a good deed." I'm hoping that if you are in Duluth this month you will stop by The Venue @ Mohaupt, 2024 West Superior Street, to check out my show, First Hand Experiences. Of the more than 130 works, I am hoping you will find at least one "good deed" among them.

The picture at the top of this page is titled Blue Van Gogh.

Symbolism

In art history Symbolism was an actual movement in which pictorial means were used to convey allegorical meanings. Throughout art history symbolism has been used, however, especially in religious iconography.

To illustrate the difference between symbolism and representational art, picture a cave drawing with several buffalo images with a dotted line crossing a bunch of wavy lines. This representational piece is telling people where the buffalo are and how to get there. (They are across the river.) If one of the buffalo has wings and is flying above the herd, it might be some kind of early symbolic expression. ("The gods granted me an opportunity to take one.") If there is a large tripod-like creature lifting one of the buffalo and a screeching noise being emitted with a beam of light coming out disintegrating the other buffaloes, then you are looking at an early telling of War of the Worlds. Later historians would then endlessly debate whether this was Realism or Fantasy.

All this to say that symbolism is as much a part of art as metaphors are to poetry. For example, in David Bowie's Is There Life On Mars? the line, "look at those cave men go" is not referring to cave men but to lowbrow brutes having it out in a bar fight, or possibly the alienated teenager is watching a movie of such. But the words are not literal but rather metaphorical, as is Em Dickinson's line, "Hope is the thing with feathers" which Woody Allen turns around to indicate his own -- and modern man's -- existential alienation and despair with the title of his volume Without Feathers. Or he may mean he is exposing himself.

O.K., so this was a long intro to make a small point about my Lincoln paintings. The first painting, Blue Lincoln, was not really about Lincoln at all. I had read a quote somewhere that "you can't fight an international war and a civil war at the same time" and it resonated with me. I believe it was from the book Maximilian and Carlotta in which the U.S. could not defend Mexico against European incursion (a violation of the Monroe Doctrine) because it was in the throes of its own Civil War. For me this was a perfect symbol of many lives today who are battling their own inner conflicts and have unresolved issues in their hearts while also trying to carry on with their life purpose of service to the community or the world-at-large. Many people have been sidelined by internal conflicts who could be leaders of organizations in need of leadership.

The Lincoln image thus became such a symbol for me. The overarching internal conflict between good and evil, righteousness and temptation, left the president blue.

The painting Lincoln II has a brighter background, but his features are ashen. The subtitle, Portrait with One Dying Eye, is a reference to the line from Dylan's Hurricane. "The wounded guy looks up through his one dyin' eye, Says 'What'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy.'" The song is ultimately about injustice, as noted in the second to last verse. "To see him obviously framed couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game."

And so it is that presidents themselves become symbols. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech was not delivered in Arlington Cemetery, land that formerly belonged to Robert E. Lee, but rather at the Lincoln Memorial. Symbols have power. Symbols resonate.

Blue Lincoln, Lincoln III (right) and Lincoln II (Portrait with One Dying Eye) will be on display this month at The Venue, 2024 West Superior Street, Duluth. Hope you get a chance to see what's happening there.

Hanging Out at the Venue

“The most important tool the artist fashions through constant practice is faith in his ability to produce miracles when they are needed. Pictures must be miraculous.” ~ Mark Rothko

It’s official. My work is now hanging on the walls and in the halls of The Venue @ Mohaupt, in Duluth’s West End. The show is titled First Hand Experiences and for the next couple weeks, till the opening July 21, I will attempt to explain (from time to time here on my blog) some of the sources, stories and meanings behind a few of these paintings and drawings. First off, I will comment on the naming of the show.

Naming can be one of the most enjoyable or challenging parts of any creative endeavor. Several discarded names for the show preceded this one, but when it hit there was a sticktuitive quality which inspired me.

First Hand Experiences not only speaks of the process of creation in which every work is a first hand experience of the artist… but it also points to the interactive first hand experience of the viewer who participates in the piece as he engages its features and forms.

My artistic influences include Dali, Matisse, Duchamp, Picasso, Magritte, Rivers and Rauschenburg among others. The other day I mentioned several personal influences and would like to add to that list Mr. Sebes, my high school art teacher at Bridgewater-Raritan West in New Jersey. During two years of art tutelage I gained exposure to a wide range of creative expression. I also learned a few techniques with regard to my painting. As for my drawing, it developed on its own up in my room after my homework was done.

Possibly my strongest influence at that time was a painting by medieval Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch, a peer of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Bosch’s tryptich The Garden of Earthly Delights had a profound impact on me with its depictions of the Garden of Eden, the earthly delights and of the darkness of Hell. The latter appeared on an early Deep Purple album called Tetragrammaton, a reference to the unpronounceable name of God.

As my imagination entered into the Bosch depictions on this album, they were translated into my own striking pen and ink drawings. What I lacked in skill was made up for in imagination at this time.

There is possibly no greater joy than the act of creation.

As for the show, consider yourself invited!

First Hand Experiences

"The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths." ~ Bruce Nauman

It's official. Last night after work and much of today I have been hanging my paintings at drawings at a place in the West End called The Venue @ Mohaupt. The title of the show is First Hand Experiences: A Retrospective with Glimpses of Things to Come.

A couple weeks ago, when I was first asked to consider it, I felt a little overwhelmed at how much work there would be to get things ready. Then, I did an inventory of what I have already framed, and learned a technique for displaying my painted masonite panels. In short, things came together quickly and we're underway.

First Hand Experiences is primarily a presentation of my recent works, but I have also assembled representative pieces from my earlier days including a pen and ink illustration that won a contest and was published as cover art. The $25 was nice, too.

Preparing the show has brought back a few other memories. The first is how my grandmother used to say I never scribbled when I was little, that from my earliest I used to draw. I can't say whether this is fact or fiction (that I never scribbled) but I do remember at a very early age that I loved to trace things. I remember getting fascinated by drawing faces, then cutting out the eyes and putting different backgrounds behind the face to see how the various colors and patterns would change the expression. I must have been about five years old at that time.

At some point when I was five or six my parents enrolled me in some classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I still remember a couple of those lessons. In one instance we were shown a room with images from the medieval era and we were shown lettering that was all embellished with leafy vines and swirly curlicues. Each of us was instructed to draw our own initial in this same embellished fashion. I, of course, did the letter "E".

A couple years later I used to watch this artist on television who showed you how to draw perspective and create three dimensional depth on a two dimensional surface. This kind of thing was utterly fascinating for me and still fascinates.

The open house, to which the public is invited, will be on July 21 from 6 - 9 p.m. The Venue is located at 2024 West Superior Street in Duluth's West End.

Fine Arts

I was recently contacted on Facebook by an artist I went to school with at Ohio University, Kim Abeles. Kim was a fellow art student at Siegfried Hall whose innovative work showed that she clearly had a future in the arts. My recollection was of a number of very talented young people who seemed exceedingly committed to new visions, not simply getting a grade. It was a fertile time for releasing the powers of imagination. The energy was such that I believed a movement was being germinated. But alas, upon graduation we splintered in an array of directions. Ultimately, art remained important to all of us.

Kim ended up in California and somehow, undoubtedly by means of the emerging Internet, I contacted her again in 1996. She responded by sending a book titled Enciclopedia Persona, which had been published in conjunction with the Museo de Arte de Santa Monica. Kim's work was being exhibited throughout South America.

I visited Kim during my first business trip to California in 1998 or thereabouts, and had the privilege of seeing her studio. Impressive! Some of her work included etchings made solely by placing glass on the roof and allowing the L.A. smog to do the etch. One of these was a collection of dinner plates that had portraits of U.S. presidents from McKinley to Bush in the center of the plate with historical quotes declaring a commitment to the environment on the rim of each. The power of this collection was that each image had been created with about a week's worth of Los Angeles smog. I kid you not.

During our visit I lamented privately that I was somewhat envious of her output and her life of ongoing creative expression. She encouraged me to re-connect with my roots in the arts and not give up.

After more than twenty years in advertising, I have always been grateful at the opportunity to make a living and provide for my family by means of applied creativity. There are, however, other creative disciplines that have value as well. To some extent making art -- painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. -- is therapeutic, and to some extent it is an exploration of possibilities. While I am reluctant to call our visit "the" trigger event to push me back toward a more earnest commitment to the fine arts, it was certainly one such prod.

This past week I have been in the process of framing drawings and paintings, preparing work for a first show, at The Venue in Duluth's West End. It's an adventure, and if you are in the vicinity I invite you to partake of it. I will keep you posted of the details.

Of Kim Abeles, her newest adventure will be a show in China. I'm confident it will be a thought provoking experience for anyone who takes it in.