Yesterday, I had the most exciting art chat with artist, Terry Amig. She abides Somewhere Pretty and Rural, in New Jersey, on the east coast of the United States. Amig is known as an independent working woman, making art which she defines in terms of excellence; which may or may not be readily accessible to the jaded, the inexperienced, and/or cursory observer. Thus, her work is a HOT SECRET, between us. Or is it a torch leading the benighted toward the opening of the cave, toward the radiant sunlight?
Stick around… you might learn something…
Amig’s work captures the sacred spark, the glowing ember, the elemental in, at-first-glance innocuous animal portraiture. Yes, animal portraits… I know, this is NOT the kind of thing… that urban hipsters dream of hanging above their beds, on the cracked walls of their hemmed in love shacks. No. This is fine art for thinkers; humans ready to arise and awake, from stupor of mind, dancing away from the prevalence of contemporary art cheap tricks, overnight, “sensations,” and other fleeting fancies, which in our distinctly intoxicating times, heady days of lush entertainments and dazzling circuses galore, all on-line and ready to be downloaded with a click… to the deep brown eyes of a (perfectly rendered, highly yet not hyper realistic) cow, wet and sparkling like the self regenerating and spiritually renewing water on the original well’s glittering surface; painted faithfully to fool the eye and seduce the viewer into a conversation with the infinite… a reminder of the depth of love which animates us. Each living being represents the outcome of a miracle, an explosion, a sparkling spray of cosmic water. Kaboom! The birth of beauty; as represented in ancient mythology and in later literature is frequently that which happens at the site where the ocean kisses the earth and there from the sea foam; perfection springs. Somehow, Amig addresses the spirituality and vulnerability of the viewer with a mirror image an equally valuable soul in encased in the body of “beast of burden.” Inviting questions about one’s own “Farmed Animal,” status.
Amig is pure energy; a bright white flame in the cold icy night of nothingness, which may be precisely why she is so firm and secure in her artistic vision. She charts her own course and conducts meticulous multi-level spiritually charged excavations into meaning; discovering, renewing, and recovering the underlying truth which makes her work to par with the great Ad Reinhardt’s, an abstractionist focused on pure form and color; entirely non-objective art…whose work is virtually faultless and offers a bench mark for excellence in another visual language; almost diametrically opposed to Amig’s representational work; yet as rich and deep; like the ocean and the fruits of her ongoing investigations; Amig pours into her work, thus imbuing it with the eerie life that classical painters of lore, mastered. She is refreshingly youthful, brimming with vitality, with ice blond curls and sapphire eyes, she has a “Roman nose,” according to all accounts. Her passion for life and for painting fiercely, from a place of deep full-time mindful conscious art practice, is evident in every nearly invisible wondrous strokes of smoothly applied paint.
Amig’s laser focus, and unwavering determination to create, make it a snap to distinguish her work from that of others.
Amig, whose name issues an invitation of friendship with the earth, a woman/artist with a message; conducting extensive personal research into the sources of life; reproduced into polished art works of enduring charm. Amig courts the life-giving forces; she is out in the field, in the larger world, asking questions and being of service to the ones fortunate to have her nearby… thank goodness for the telephone… thank goodness for methods of communication, painting included, from which all quantity and quality of life experience and ancient understanding, may suddenly, spring and be shared in cups of casual intimate informal art-chat here on Talkinggrid and elsewhere; where it matters and encourages LIFE.
In its unending diversity and emotional interest; I’d readily label Amig’s work as “Contemporary Treasure,” booty for those LOOKING for art with SOUL, salvation, maybe for those looking for a well dressed emperor… “There is no Emperor,” Amig informed me. This fact, which the unenlightened might pass by, is the key to understanding the “secret ingredient,” the magical quality of Amig’s work, which is informed with an interest in the stories of epic magnitude, handed down from one generation to the next, to be are embedded in Amig’s artist ouvre. Amig packs more meaning into painting designed to be decoded only by the eyes, hearts, minds, which remain WIDE OPEN to the new within traditional painting; which pushed aside for the cheap thrills of sloppy chops, paint spray (which don’t get me wrong, I love…) or chewing gum installations… are not silenced but rather, distinguished and rendered even more worthy of respectful attention by ernest reflection.
The basis of her production is cemented in the reality of excellent technique, finish; Amig is a classically trained painter that did her stint at Cal Arts; so is versed in postmodernism and conceptual practices… up-to-date; showing regularly and with a solid career of art production behind her; Amig staunchly refuses to abide by existing dogma which prescribes or apparently delineates what is and what is not vogue art. She is burns bright and steady; fueling a simmering following, which may boil over into fame, if not carefully managed and avoided, Amig might find herself stranded on the high peaks of chilly STARDOM; splashed by praise, and surround by oceans of admirers… of those ready to see contemporary painting worthy of study, immersion created by a brilliant woman.
Brava, Amig! I salute YOU!
Love,
Frau Kolb
***Remember to faithfully call the geniuses that populate your world, from time to time connecting with their tender spirits; beings far away, these cherished friends, are sources of experience and inspiration… Yes, indeed Frau Kolb recommends you devote time to the telephoning of Muses.