Celebrate the color of life ( or why I became an artist)
There is only one fact you need to know about me in order to explain why I became an artist. My father passed away when I was five years old.
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Embrace by Miriam Schulman, fine art print |
nurture vs. nature: my creative DNA
I tell you this not so you will feel sorry for me, for I have rarely felt sorry for myself. This fact has become so deeply ingrained in my nature that I can no longer separate the aftermath of growing up fatherless from other facts about me such as my birth order or my gender.I say this without cynicism nor with the religious attitude that "everything happens for a reason" for I do not believe in that either.
Events can make their own reasons. Perhaps, I would have still become an artist even if I did not know death. However, one thing I do know-- is that I would have become a different kind of artist had I become an artist at all.
Celebrate the color of life
I am an artist that paints and celebrates the color of life. I do not seek to recreate death in my paintings-- I know that too well. At five, I stared into a black room filled with sad people I knew. Everyone in my life was there... except for my father. His absence was answered by an explanation I was not yet ready to understand.
I have been running from black ever since.
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"Hope in Sadness" by Miriam Schulman |
Hope in sadness
My paintings are filled with the colors of joy and harmony. I create art to lift me up and share my lust for life with others in a way that heals the soul. Although color is my subject, I choose to paint landscapes, figures and animals and each serves its purpose. Whether I paint people or peacocks, its personality that moves my paintbrush. Sometimes, their sadness does make its way into my art but I aim to show you that there is something beautiful and hopeful in that sadness as well
Personality of a place
When I travel, I will sketch with my camera capturing ideas and then create a landscape that will show others what I want them to see. Rarely do I choose the typical tourist postcard scenes. Rather, I focus on the ordinary experience of being on the street with the people and colors. I bring life to the personality of a place. The painting creates a two dimensional escape window to a calmer time and space.Do I know you?
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All living things have souls. Raccoon Art by Miriam Schulman. "Do I know you", 7x10" original watercolor |
Figures and animals- anything with "eyes" -has always been natural for me. I was always the kind of student who might be caught drawing my teachers instead of taking notes. I may have sketched my female teachers, but it is the drawings of my male teachers that I remember the most. I studied their faces so carefully, perhaps looking for the father I never knew. Perhaps his is the soul I seek when I paint animals.
Dark Horse by Miriam Schulman |
Non-toxic materials only
You can even link my choice of materials to my father's death. I paint with water based medium such as watercolors or acrylics because I have found them to be the least toxic of all the artist mediums. My mind at ease that I am working with non-toxic materials, I can focus on my art instead of my safety.
The artist statement
So when I was asked to write this artist statement to answer not the what but the why. I find it impossible to separate my reasons from my biography. When I paint, I feel alive as I watch the colors mix and flow on the paper or canvas to recreate a more beautiful world filled with color, love and tranquility.
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