About AmArA
Scheduled Exhibitions Inspiration/Music Collection at Bundy Museum & Gallery, Binghamton, NY, March 2012 Gala Reception, March 2, 6pm - 9pm
Selections from Inspiration/Music at Accompaniment, a Broome County Arts Council Group Show, Binghamton, NY, April-May 2012 Gala Reception, April 6, 2012
Selected Solo Exhibitions Madame Butterfly: Behind the Scenes of Tri-Cities Opera, Tri-Cities Opera Gallery, Binghamton,NY, February, 2012 Extra Artist on the Set of Fat Kid Rules the World, Bundy Museum and Gallery, Binghamton, NY, November, 2011 Known Universe circa 2011, 3.14, White Center, Seattle, June - August 2011 Affair with the World, Sunflower Gallery, Washington, May - August 2011 Views from the Emerald City, Village Wine Bar, Seattle, March 2011
Selected Group Exhibitions Antioch University, "Celebrate with heART: 35th Anniversary," Seattle, May 2011 Pintexo, Seattle, March - May 2011 Wells College String Room Gallery, "Personal Mythology," Aurora, NY, March 2010 Community School for Music and Art, "Art for All Marathon," Ithaca, NY, October, 2009 Wells College String Room Gallery, "Lost and Found," Aurora, NY, February 2009 Front and Center Gallery, Owego, NY, July, 2008
Selected Publications The Weather; Radio interview with WHRW 90.5 FM, Binghamton, NY, October 2011 Get Behind Me, Now Stay There; Radio interview for KSKQ 89.5 FM, Northern California and Southern Oregon, August 2011 Matthew Lillard Online; Several featured short articles on "Extra Artist on the set of Fat Kid Rules the World", July, 2011 Dark Muse; Feature article and review, June, 2011 Weedblog; Featured article on "Affair with the World", April, 2011
Bodies of Work Paintings from the set of Fat Kid Rules the World, June - August 2011 The unique view of an artist working as an extra on a punk rock inspired feature film
Known Universe circa 2011, 2011 Inspired by the new pictures of our solar system and universe being photographed by the NASA missions and satellite telescopes
Affair with the World, 2010 - 2011 An exploration of the mundane and the strange objects from two months of traveling in the United States
Jetsam Series, 2005 - 2011 Jetsam is something that is thrown overboard from a ship and carried by the ocean without care. That adequately describes my muses.
Silk, 2010 - 2011 This series of erotic and occasionally dark paintings are all inspired by the sensual nature of painting on silk fabric
Education Bachelors of Fine Art, SUNY Fredonia, 2006
A Statement from the Artist AmArA
I strive to show the Truth of this moment in time. A camera is an objective thing, showing a moment without context or emotion. A painting is a subjective viewpoint, with the capability in the color, method, technique, and style to show the deeper truths within a moment in time.
Exploring the life of a painting mentally through more then my life, past the lifetime of the patron, beyond a century, and through all of its own life. Knowing that this isn’t possible, to mentally achieve expectation or understanding, but to make conscious decisions to guide that life. An oil painting designed to crack in layers, a winter scene below and a spring scene above, as the painting ripens, it turns to fall with the layers of dust and smoke and life over it, tinting it and leaves the scene of bareness below as it literally falls away. Creating work that is not intended to be preserved, but to be lived with.
Sometimes, I have noticed, a project demands to be created. My series Extra Artist on the Set of Fat Kid Rules the World was one of those projects. I was a conduit for an idea larger then myself and a vision that reached through time and space. The images demanded themselves and the project evolved from on set sketches to paintings to full installations. I am like a piece of wood floating on the rapids in the midst of such projects: With only the slightest ability to guide it, I am along for the ride and to provide a human context, a face, and a voice.
When the self-propelled project sweeps me away, I gratefully enjoy the ride, but it is a rare pleasure that can not be depended on. To this point in my career, I have enjoyed the strange trips that my art has forced me to take, and treaded water in between, waiting for the next wave. I would like to stop waiting, and learn to fill my life with many projects, the pieces flying around me inpiring each other and taking on a life beyond my limited reach.
My work revolves around the interaction between the arts. The work that comes from my brush is inspired by the visions I have seen, but it is subconsciously inspired by the music I am listening to, the movie I saw last night, the season and the studio I am working in. My work is often inspired by musicians, dancers, theatrical productions, religious ceremonies, and movie shoots...by other people seeking truth. I would like to close the circle and introduce my visual art to the world with installations that include auditory cues and staged experiences: Creating an individual and multifaceted subconscious association with the visual image. I think that people have habitual modes of thinking. Seeing a painting on a white wall with unobtrusive music leads to associations that are within the scope of the individuals normal, everyday habitual thinking. By creating controlled environments, with musical and sound effects for each painting and shills among the guests bring up specified reactions and interactions, it shock the individual into an association that is outside their habitual modes, creating a new thought pattern that will remain a mental path walked for the rest of their lives. A moment of truth beyond their normal selves.