This week's feature is Vidar Designs who works on more than just the eye-catching portraits that you can witness on her Instagram/the images she has provided for this blog post.
Kristen A. Sanchez(Vidar being her artist's name) she tells us a little bit about her recent interests as she shares by saying "I've been really enjoying catching up with reading lately. I've read Historical Heritage of the Lower Rio Grande by Florence J. Scott which speaks about the colonization by the Spanish & how territories were established from I believe the 18th & 19th centuries. And I'm currently reading Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson which speaks about the order of things, political issues, race/racism, etc." Caste actually sounds really interesting! It's like getting a new book recommendation every time when I read these.
From her most recent interests to her favorite local artists being "My favorite local artists are Astrid Magallon (@toasterastrudel), Brenda Juarez (@bjuarez813), Lisa Moreno (@codarollins), Roni Cortez (@roni.co_) & Jesmil Maldonado-Rodriguez (@jmmr_art). I have many more but these are just the few that I remember from the top of my head."
Ah yes, Jesmil! Love her work! I'll be sure to check out the artists mentioned as well!
Looking at Vidar's artwork and looking through the diversity of pieces that her Instagram holds I couldn't quite place my finger on her style as she explains "I like to follow the style of realism, although hyper-realism is a distant goal. I have this style because it's evolved so much from the cartoonist style where I started from Elementary to Junior High. I study the well-known Da Vinci & Raphael who are both heavy influences on my works."I was stuck on realism, but with all the artists I have spoken to and with everyone working on their own styles I personally was not able to pinpoint what the art style could have been. I am learning more about art styles slowly, but surely!
With realism I'm assuming that comes with well it's self-explanatory with the title of "realism" along with the work she produces as the example she speaks on the portraits she produces
"portraits were always one of the main components of the human anatomy/body that I struggled with so much. Even during my 4 yrs at uni I couldn't properly do a portrait until I graduated (last Fall). I made it a goal to practice and dedicate myself to doing them as often as I could so I could get the repetition of proportion placements. I absolutely love doing portraits now especially in the 3/4 angle. It captures many of the angled & "chiseled" features of the face that get often lost within the profile & frontal angle." Looking at the portraits they sure do come off as real or rather that they had the individual right in front of them. The details that are given to them along with expressions on the portraits just bring more life to them from looking at them. As we mentioned the expressions on the portraits she explains the addition of expressions used in her work "I try adding details as often as I can within my pieces to capture that realistic effect. Not only does it help me with that, but it also helps distinguish what needs more definition or depth. This is really important to me so my pieces won't look flat. Adding tones, values, and lines help immensely as well." She mentions that during her time at the university she couldn't "properly do a portrait", but with all the details being added I can understand the work that goes into creating a portrait. In this case, she wants to "capture that realistic effect" into her work which she has truly captured in her work.
From the way her portraits are and her 4-year journey to mastering her work how has she changed from when she started? She tells us by saying "I am a self-taught artist so I first began in Elementary. I started experimenting with tracing using graphite and tracing paper. Then I moved on to mimicking cartoons from coloring pages, comic books, & manga in Junior High. During High school, I let go of that and transitioned onto making tattoo designs. It first started out as tribal designs to florals to sea creatures. I only picked up tattoo designs because I was heavily influenced by Ed Hardy, he was wildly famous during 2010-2012 for me. During uni, I was exposed to the different eras of art. I became fascinated with European art and the way the earliest artists accentuated the human body. I guess I subconsciously made the decision to focus on figure work. With each piece that I create, I grow along with it such as improving minimally with either details or shading or moving onto bolder pieces."
As she states "with each piece that I create, I grow along with" along with all that she was experienced to be where she is now. As a person, we don't stop growing, and even with anything that we involve ourselves in doing with the continuous work we put into it we can only expect to grow or see the mistakes we make to learn from. We can all look into our starting points and be like "Woah I really came a long way, huh." Overall we certainly will see our differences from once started or even how we develop our personal style or change styles.
From all the work she has gone through and experienced what would have to be her favorite piece to which she says "My favorite piece thus far is my recent painting, Grasp. This painting is going to be a part of my own series of bodies and red hands that is based off of my personal life experiences or feelings from my childhood to teen years. Grasp shows the vulnerability of the female body in nude with large red hands, red meaning a warning/dangerous sign. The bodies would represent myself but the bodies painted are models and without a head or limbs because I am an artist who challenges the complexity of identity within the human figure." From looking at the Grasp I was able to look at this and get a bit of an understanding, by the color choice of the hands and how detailed the hands out bringing out how nasty they are or rather the ill intent that they have. I can't find the proper word for it, but the hands just bring out so much when I first looked at it. What are your thoughts on the Grasp? Take your time to look at it.
From portraits to paintings, what would Vidar like to one day experiment with as she replied with "I'd like to experiment with oil paints a lot more. I did use them during my junior and senior year at uni but never for personal works." I mean it surely is never too late to experiment and see how it can maybe transfer over to a personal piece.
With all the artwork within her Instagram account I took a look into her bio and what caught my eye was "educator." She goes into detail about her position "My current position is a Museum Educator at the International Museum of Art & Science. I believe education of the Arts is crucial. It stems away from your typical STEM learning and pushes for creativity. Many people don't take into account how hard any of the Arts can be and disregard the practice and dedication it takes to perfect ourselves. Not only does it push for creativity, there's a rich history behind each Arts ie. rebellions, wars, protests, the beginning of new changes, etc. I am proud to be an Educator of the Arts and admire everyone who teaches within it as well." My experience with art classes before my university Art Appreciation course is that it is really different from a high school art course in my experience. I really did learn new things, but then combining it with The Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics in my junior year of university. It made me appreciate newer things as well. There is a lot to take from art courses. It's more than just colors, but what lies behind it. It is truly a class I won't forget and my appreciation for art grew even bigger than what it was even my appreciation for the used in calendars.
As I scrolled through her work I began to think about how do artists choose the individuals they want to portrait or draw in general to which she explained "The decision to make who or what to draw is a little tricky. I come across many portraits and designs but few will inspire me. If I'm deciding who to draw for a portrait, I pay very close attention to how the eyes look or if a facial feature catches my eye, I have it set in my head that I will draw them. If I'm deciding on a design for a tattoo or anything else, I gather many different references that are close to what I'm picturing or referencing, that way I can see what fits best." That's a very interesting choice on how to pick "I pay very close attention to how the eyes look or if a facial feature catches my eye," but as artists, we are all different and we choose our portraits of choice for different reasons. Someone could even say "I chose them because they looked cool" which is totally fine as well. Now that I look at them more there is the "eyes" and interesting "facial features" in the portraits that I can see as well. The one featured below caught my attention by the eyes along with everything else. From the finger placement, the lips, the hair. It all comes together so well.
Vidar shares her thoughts on the local scene in The Valley,
"I think the art scene has the potential to keep growing. The artists that I know keep producing wonderful things from music to art to dance to florists. Art businesses always cater to everyone, even new ones keep popping up. "
With an extra comment from Vidar,
"I am 23, I have a BFA with a concentration in Studio Art from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. I am Mexican American who identifies as a woman and I am a part of the
LGBTQIA+ community. My pronouns are she/her/hers."
Comentários