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Monday, August 10 2009 |
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Screen name: stareyes13
Arts Lovers in L.A. Co-group Leader
Neighborhood: Studio City
Website: http://BertaArt.com
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Q. How did you come to SingularCity and what interests you about our community?
A: I am a social person who loves to attend events and was tired of online dating, so when I first received Singular magazine, I was excited. I thought, here’s a community with no pressure — how wonderful. I love the people that I’ve met at the SingularCity Happy Hour and especially at the art gallery events. I enjoy sharing about art on SingularCity which is how Abel Contreaz and I came to create the Arts Lovers L.A. group.
Q: Tell us about your life growing up in Romania and your arrival in the U.S.
A: I grew up in a culturally rich and stimulating environment in a Hungarian enclave in Romania. Life was difficult. We had to wait in long lines to buy groceries. We ate polenta with whatever we could manage to get. My father worked very hard to get us to the United States. We were separated for over two years while he went to Yugoslavia, crossed the border to Italy and waited in a camp for nine months to gain acceptance to the U.S. We were reunited in Chicago when I was 11 years old. I’ll never forget seeing him all dressed in white with a black bow tie when our flight arrived.
Q. How did your interest and passion for creating art evolve?
A: I began painting when I moved to Los Angeles in 1987. While I was at USC, I was going through a period of stress and art provided me with creative and therapeutic outlets. I first worked with oil then later with acrylic. Then I began studying printmaking and fell in love with the process. Today I integrate printmaking in my mixed media work.
The last few years, commissions requested by buyers with a vision of my art have inspired me. I incorporate photographs of the recipient’s life and travels, journals, and other materials to create works that capture their memories and special moments.
Studying in Florence last year had a profound effect on my work. While there, I deepened my knowledge of several art techniques including: Image On, Solar Plate (photopolymer) printmaking, and integrating monoprints into mixed media works.
I began creating textures, adding layers of torn posters, writings and recycling exotic materials. My colors are now rich and earthy with passionate blues derived from my love for the ocean.
Last year I began teaching printmaking, collage, and mixed media. It is so satisfying to see the beautiful pieces my art students produce with my guidance. Teaching art and witnessing the enthusiasm and growth of my students has been catalytic to my own creations.
Q: What do you want to convey through your art and how do you do that?
A: I want my emotions to flow through my art and touch others in a significant way. Particularly with commissioned art, my intention is to merge my own emotional reactions with the desires and feelings of the person it is being created for. I often use antique woods as a base to convey the important link of history’s beauty with today through my use of modern techniques.
In 2003 I became a widow. I began to focus most of my attention and energy on painting, and that’s when my art really began selling. I could see that my art touched people and I realized that it is the love and healing that I put into my work that they feel. Painting has been healing and spiritually enriching for me and I find this to be so for my students as well.
Q. What is your focus in life and in art?
A: My present focus is to continue to evolve spiritually and to teach and inspire others. I am fortunate to have a beautiful, tranquil home and an inspiring studio to create in. I enjoy interior design and using Feng Shui tools to create balance in my home and my garden. Meditation plays a large part in my life by creating a place of peace and compassion.
Q. What are your influences?
A: I have been influenced by Robert Rauschenberg, Joseph Cornell and Hannelore Baron.
Q. What would you like to see as your legacy?
A: I hope that I will leave behind a meaningful body of work and thus continue to add to the lives of others.
Are you an artist too? If so, tell us about your art.
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Keep up the good work.
You can tell It is created from great soul and meaning and the colors and mediums capture emotion in a very spiritually metaphorical way.
Your legacy is the you beautiful person that you are Your art is an extension of that person Thank you, you have much to offer
Love Mbali