DAP
“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” Twyla Tharp
DETROIT ART PRESS Detroit Art Press is dedicated to introducing and investing in the careers of Detroit’s best emerging and established artists. Our mission is to support artists through the promotion and sale of their work in addition to driving traffic to their websites and expanding their audience.
DAP expands the world of art collecting by providing the opportunity to discover and own limited edition prints by some of the most exciting and promising talent the metro area has to offer at a democratic price point making the work accessible. All our art is printed to museum quality, fully authenticated by the artist, made in limited editions, and signed by the artist.Â
ALAN WATSON One of the essential facts of our human condition is that we manufacture neither our bodies nor our brains. Nevertheless, it is from out of these physical things that we create our hopes, our dreams, and indeed our selves. My mixed-media paintings are designed in sympathy with this basic fact:  for each composition begins with elements that I did not self-manufacture but nonetheless manipulate to my own creative ends. These elements are usually “found� objects that no longer represent their original purpose in the world but are now employed for their shape, color, or texture.
Sometimes the objects remain wedded to the surface of the painting; at other times they are removed once their new-found purpose has been achieved. The latter technique is employed with such things as masking tape or factory -made stickers. Some of the shapes employed may be common symbols, such as stars, moons, grids, spirals, or even figures. Examples of objects that would remain in the painting include such things as drywall tape, broken toys, or pieces of tile.- Alan Watson
ANGELINE MEITZLERÂ
Angeline Meitzler’s multi disciplinary work is influenced from her experience with coding and her interests in linguistics. Her work explores how fragments of mark and signs can build a system in itself in the same way that syntax arranges words and phrases to create methods of communication. To do this, she experiments with 2D mediums and various forms of digital approaches such as digital collage, natural language processing and 3D coding. She received a BFA from Grand Valley State University, attended the School for Poetic Computation and has shown her work nationwide.
My work is about energy, little mysteries of nature, rhythm, mark-making, and of course, lines. I love the line.
SETON S'ROTIDE
LISA GOEDERT "I work in a nature theme. My symbols are abstractions of my ideas about energy and the symbiotic relationships of mass to mass. These symbols relate back to things such as rocks, planets, plants, paramecium, hills, and the explosion of birth and seeds: the promise of renewal on Earth.
I know a piece is done when I feel the right energy, that is, the right "charge" being conveyed. I like haikus and I try to achieve the same simple beauty of haikus in my paintings.I work messy and sporadic at first; however, I am very particular when finishing a piece. I obsess over every line, its thickness, its simplicity, its curvature. I am also particular about the balance of my forms. I am inspired by scientific line-drawings found in books, and by mathematical illustrations or graphs. I see beauty in such things. Conversely, I am also drawn to organic forms, such as ovals and circles and seedy-like sprays of dots. A grassy, reedy pond feels like math to me somehow.In addition, I enjoy the mysteries of the sea, space, and forests. I don't need a whole lot to tell my story, Minimalism, ahhh. The Calm." - Lisa Goedert
MARK WOLAK
Mark Wolak claims he has always been an artist. This statement goes far beyond Mark's focus of painting. Mark began drawing before he was ten, studied guitar and martial arts through high school, and made a short career as a musician in his 20's. Disillusionment with the music industry brought him full circle to rediscover the visual arts again. Mark began began drawing again years after he originally put down the pencil as a child.
Mark created a method of working which is uniquely his own. Mark makes each and every canvas unique. He rarely repeats himself. His canvases are each unique in size. This nuance gives each work its own character and helps Mark to create individual statements each time he works. His unique method involves painting "wet on wet", which means he never allows the painting to dry while he is working. He rarely uses brushes. He prefers to use found objects, sticks, and other "tools" to get the desired effect.
MARY ROUSSEAUX " Â - the water towers are an exploration of my current landscape, they celebrate the everyday, the common and the forgotten." - Mary Rousseaux
Rousseaux's work explores the ideas of memory and how they weave together to create our reality.
Rousseaux is an active member of the arts community and has exhibited in the city area for over 15 years. Her work can be found in many private and public collections, both national and international including in the permanent collection of The Detroit Institute of Arts. In addition, her work has been included in publications such as Architectural Digest and Traditional Home and most recently has been featured in the Fox series Empire.Â
DEBORAH FRIEDMAN My work is the result of creating order out of confusion. The challenge in starting with an unplanned idea is finding balance in an ever-changing composition. The excitement of the emerging composition propels the work forward using the consistency of line and, often circular, shape to achieve the desired visual stability. There is an awareness on my part that I'm creating an environment or escapes to other places in my work. These images require intense concentration, so much so, that when a piece is completed it is as though I'm returning from an extended trip to another place and time. My studio is my loyal friend, always there, where most things eventually make sense. I am in charge, in control, for better or worse. The colors, smells, the work, both mess and order, are all a part of me, all contribute to my being an artist.
- Deborah Friedman
JIM STELLA
"The representations in my paintings are drawn from everyday life, but they are reintegrated to reflect how I see them, perceive them, or remember them. I like the large format because thoughts flow in a lot of different directions and fast. The size is designed to take up your field of view, yet contain small elements your mind can follow."- Jim Stella
ELLE ROUSSEAUX Elle Rousseaux grew up in a print studio in midtown Detroit. She learned to print about the same time she learned to spell. Her marks come from a place of spontaneity and joyful exploration of the world around her. She attended Cooper Union in Manhattan , and while she fully embraced what New York City had to offer she couldn't wait to return to her hometown.
She actively explores the language of collage and assemblage. Using appropriated images to open a dialogue that bridges the traditions of the past with contemporary ideas of the changing urban landscape.
KARL SCHNEIDER "My fingers flow as if a tap has been tapped. The more control I claim the less i really have. For then I claim no control, if like any other dictator were to do so :.Claiming something that is- of the moment such as pure energy that it is. would be claiming myself a god over life force. I am still here , so I cannot do so. The only control I have ( If I do at all ) is over the medium itself. What I choose to pick to express the self onto,and not with. For to know is to exert something that i believe is there, and art itself is not there until it is in the mind. and only then."Â Karl Scheneider
ALICIA DEGENER
Alicia Degener is a native Detroiter who studied fine art at Parsons School of Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A longtime Brooklyn resident Alicia paints the landscape of NYC but continues to revisit Detroit where she discovered her love of representing the patterns and details found in great, perhaps crumbling architecture and intricate ironwork found in bridges. Architectural details such as corinthian columns, cornices, friezes and anything kitschy Americana like roadside signs are often explored in Alicia’s work. Degener combines literal representation with abstract elements to focus on what she wants people to see she finds interesting about a place. Brilliant and vibrant color combined with a wonky sense of perspective bring movement to her paintings and a fresh view on city landscapes. Unusual cropping and framing of images add to the overall look of Alicia’s artwork. Degener often incorporate text and imagery she finds in street signs to give a narrative sometimes ironic or humorous to her artwork.
KATERINA FRIDAY Katerina Friday is a Russian-born artist with a background in drawing, painting, and animation. She received a BFA at the College for Creative Studies, where she studied traditional animation techniques, illustration, and multi-media. Her work ranges from representational to abstract and conceptual. Â Having grown up in Russia, she has lived in Detroit area for the last decade, and brings a crosscultural approach to her art through multiple mediums.
MEGAN STONE Contrasting relationships in the work are invented layer by layer, altered with paint or other various materials, and reference similar relationships found within nature and man-made elements. These irregular and structural forms are chosen for their familiar, yet ambiguous qualities that are playfully manipulated in the studio. There is an urge while making to play matchmaker with the many elements and their ability to be complex and challenging. The work relies on intuitive decisions made with experimental marks to create imagery that exists beyond its origin.Â
BIRGIT HUTTEMANN-HOLZ
MARY ROUSSEAUX www.detroitartpress.com 313.241.6280 mary@detroitartpress.com