Every issue of American Art Collector is a showcase of the foremost contemporary realism being created today, but I was particularly impressed and inspired by the level of talent, skill and vision of the artists inside the September magazine.
Our features alone are testament to this, and encapsulate the diverse expressions of creativity that can be found across the magazine in its entirety.
We have Randall Rosenthal who creates hyper-realistic sculptures out of a single block of pine that make you shake your head in disbelief, which, like a magician, is exactly his intent. He makes wood look so much like paper, he’s overheard people surmise that it’s the other way around, that he’s made paper look like wood. His creativity extends beyond the works themselves. Out of necessity, he even makes his own tools..
Then there is our cover artist Chad Little, whose paintings of alluring women in the pastel palette and polka-dot patterns of the 1950s—what writer Michael Pearce dubs the era of “nuclear-age nostalgia”—are both beautiful to look at and strangely unsettling, as if all is not quite as it appears.
This issue also contains our Collector’s Focus dedicated to landscapes, 12 pages featuring the unique interpretations of the natural world by emerging and established artists. Inside this special section, the artists and the galleries that represent them reflect on the artwork and the genre in general.
Keeping with the landscape theme, we also have stories about two artists at the top of their game, Stephen Hannock and Tula Telfair, who channel the commanding presence of the external landscape onto the canvas in yet another stunning display of the ability to turn inner vision into an outer reality.
It feels good to be awed by what people are capable of. In American Art Collector we see it in the form of art. It counteracts cynicism and a jaded outlook, so easy to fall prey to, especially in these times. It provides a sense of hope. Maybe artists aren’t coming up with a cure for cancer, but their art has healing effects. They come in the form of joy, laughter, amazement, beauty, depth, connection and, as I mentioned, hope. The idea that, if this is possible, anything is.
It is my hope that American Art Collector delivers some of that to you every month. This issue sure should.
Sarah Gianelli
Managing Editor
sgianelli@americanartcollector.com
Powered by Froala Editor
