MARLOWE

IN his past life as a creative director of advertising, Rick Schneider’s artistic vision was a strength that he constantly played to, but he knew that he wanted to create work of his own—something that would bear his style and his name. In 2016, he began working on pieces of art that, to his great pleasure, seemed to resonate with people and capture their interest.

It took some experimentation, but Schneider eventually found his niche, using handmade papers and ephemera images from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s to create dimensional art that literally pops from the canvas, “assembling” his work with the assistance of an X-Acto knife and superglue. “They can be anything, from trees, textures and rocks to people, just anything from that period that gives me an idea for a piece,” he says. “I love unusual, colorful items, so my work is not subtle—I’ve been told that it’s the kind of art that grabs you by the lapels, it’s so colorful and bold. Additionally, a new technique I’m experimenting with is using a base of heavily saturated dye inks and then swirling soft pastels over the image—it adds yet another level of texture, tone and depth."

What results is something that, besides being extremely colorful, is also very dynamic in its imagery. Having developed a signature style, Schneider adopted his pseudonym,

Marlowe, both because it is his middle name and it is greatly referential to the pulp fiction character Philip Marlowe. “I started out doing what I call pulp fiction art, so it seemed fitting,” says the artist.

Much like his pieces, Marlowe has more than one dimension—a fact that can be seen in the softer pieces he creates, works whose subject matter runs toward the natural rather than the fictional. And while the dichotomy of the two may be striking, they are still fully Marlowe, drenched in color and full of dimension. “I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten farther away from fantasy artwork in the past year or so, closer to nature scenery,” he says. “Where I live in North Carolina is so scenic, and local clients gravitate more toward natural settings. The dye ink and pastel enhancements I mentioned earlier have gotten a noticeably visceral response when art buyers view my newer work.”

Marlowe is represented at New Elements Gallery in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Artistic Transfer in Dallas.

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THERE’S a poetry to the paintings that Jenan McClain creates, a fluidity and abstraction akin to the lines of a poem. She lets her emotions and soul guide the brush and follows the dictates of the words on her heart, both written and unwritten. And that is why her work speaks as powerfully as it does to the viewer, drawing out emotions and stories that create a personal connection to the work on the canvas.

“I realized that there is some emotional undertone in my paintings that resonates on another level with people,” says McClain. “It became apparent that my purpose is to translate healing, joy, light and hope, and that emotion has been felt by people—especially women— across the country who see my work.”

Knowing McClain’s back story and how her art evolved as the result of a period of grief and struggle during her daughter’s health crisis as a child, one can understand how her work would hold such force. Her art comes from that place of pain and fear over the unknown, that place where struggle gives way to surrender and spirituality. Having come through that dark time, there is a depth in her work that conveys so much—all without words.

Words are important to McClain, however, as she expresses herself through poetry just as she does through paint. And the two frequently go hand in hand. “Poetry is a big part of