Conversations on Art: Art Talk with Art League Resident Artist Members (Aug 22)

Congratulations to the Art League’s Newest Resident Artist Members!

Through a competitive application process, four Long Island artists have been selected to become the second group of Resident Artist Members at the Art League of Long Island. Established in 2018, the Resident Artist program is designed to provide a select group of Long Island based artists with skill-building and community-based opportunities to further develop their careers in the visual arts.

The program, conceived by Art Education Program Manager Andrea Manning, offers resident artists over the course of one year 150 hours of free class time, an exhibition opportunity, collaborative projects and teaching opportunities. Through these activities and other collaborative projects, these artists will engage with and become leaders in the community of one of the region’s leading visual arts centers. The membership runs June 1, 2019 through May 31, 2020, culminating in the opportunity to teach a one-day workshop in the summer of 2020. The following artists have been selected to participate in the residency: Michael Krasowitz, Christophe Lima, Sam Neukirch, and Tara Leale Porter.

Meet the 2019-2020 Resident Artist members at “Meet the Artists: Conversations on Art” on Thursday, August 22, 2019 at 6:30pm. At the event the Resident Artists will give talks that offer a glimpse into the artistic process; discover how artists turn their ideas into art. Learn about the story and the intention behind their work from the artists themselves. The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP Here or call (631) 462-5400 x222.

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About the Resident Artist Members

Michael Krasowitz is a multidisciplinary artist currently living in Huntington, Long Island. He began his career as a photographer and was extensively published worldwide. He began printmaking as an extension of his work with photography, incorporating photo images and drawing into complex compositions. Through the evolution of this work drawing replaced the photographic images.

He began painting in the year 2000. He studied old master techniques such as egg tempera, underpainting with glazing, encaustic, and fresco to achieve the quality of painting he envisioned.

About his approach to art: “I am searching for deeper meaning, and a deeper conversation about who we are and our greater purpose. I hope art enlightens and inspires, to create and find a sense of integrity and direction for culture and give form and shape to culture and understanding.”

His most recent project is painting on clothing and designing the pieces to paint on. This project is meant to bring art into non-traditional modes of presenting artworks.

Christophe-Lima-RavelChristophe Lima was born in Queens, New York in 1983 to the poet Frank Lima and his wife Roberta. Following her parents divorce she began to draw as a means of expressing what were complicated emotions for a child. She was diagnosed with Clinical Depression at 14. Within a year of the diagnosis Christophe began to study art, with the urging of her mother, through The Art School at Jerry’s Artorama in Bellerose, NY. She found art to be a soothing quest for self and validation. At 16 she decided to pursue it more seriously. Christophe enrolled at The Fashion Institute of Technology where she earned her BFA with Honors in 2006. Christophe is currently happily married, living and working in Lake Ronkonkoma. She shows work in the New York/Long Island area.

Says Lima: “I use a psychological theorem developed by Carl Jung called Shadow Work to examine the unexplored, vulnerable side of self, humanity, femininity, and my environment. My work is always gritty, honest, and emotionally driven. I understand that to live fully, to be full, we must, at times, gaze into the abyss.”

Selden resident Sam Neukirch is a local illustrator who makes fun, dynamic work with focus on exciting line work, colors that pop, and a graphic-yet-organic feel. In addition to her illustration work, she enjoys doing lots of drawing studies from life, designs and hand makes merchandise to sell at events/online, and is working towards her teenage dream of doing comics. Sam studied under the late Jeffrey K. Fisher, and at Suffolk County Community College and at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She’s done commercial freelance work for Amazon Publishing, Snap Inc. and VICE Media, was art director for local music project Nice Garage, and misses being a store artist at the Lake Grove Whole Foods.

About her art Sam says “I like to blur the lines between cartooning, illustration, and the fine arts — I put drawings on merchandise and books, but also draw with paint onto surfaces like giant canvas, skateboard decks and drumheads. Sketchbook drawing from real life is also a huge part of my practice and is the kind of work I definitely share the most. Although very different from my illustrative work, both kinds inform each other and are important.

Tara Leale Porter glass artist
Tara Leale Porter, of Huntington Station, is a fused-glass artist who incorporates found objects into unique assemblages. Porter’s journey in fused glass began while attending Pratt Institute for a B.F.A. in Photography where she was encouraged to learn an art material and play with it in novel ways. She went on to earn her M.A. in Art Therapy at Hofstra University where the emphasis was arts as a tool of communication, where the act of creating goes beyond the intellect into a deeper expression of one’s truth. In learning to fuse glass, Tara relied on the self-taught methods of research and experimentation, finding her own voice rather than following another’s lead.

Of her work Porter states: “I work with fused glass to create artworks of abstract landscapes to assemblages, each working with texture and structure as the building blocks. I utilize the fused glass’s translucency, opacity, and fluidity (created by multiple firings and schedules) to create textural elements. By interweaving these elements with found objects that have a patina of time on them, often rust and driftwood, I construct a story of regeneration, where beauty and decay flourish together.”

Read about the Resident Artist Members of 2018-2019 here

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