VIVA: Viroqua Independent Visual Artists
First Thursday
featuring painter Martina Skobic this February
Join us for our 1st Thursday artists reception featuring Martina and our viva member artists.
from 5:00-7:00 pm onFebruary 2nd
Artists Statement
I come from a part of the world where food does not just satisfy survival needs. It offers social connections, increases joy, facilitates business dealings, and offers comfort and hope. Through my travels I learned a lot about different food customs. What intrigued me the most were not differences, but how many same or very similar customs people actually share around the globe.
Initially I wanted to exhibit just joyful paintings celebrating food, but could not. The painting process offers a portal to my interior life and reflects my responses to environmental and global events. I had to include few “dark” paintings like the painting symbolizing Japanese tea ceremony interrupted by the recent earthquake and tsunami. Also, I could not ignore that according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 925 million people were undernourished in 2010. The paradox is that in the same year billions of dollars were spent to fight obesity in the most developed countries.
All included paintings are oil on linen or cotton canvases. They have “luminous glow, produced by using Renaissance techniques that apply veils of transparent color, in combination with a modern sensibility in design and color.”(DP)
You might notice tiny elements of primitive painting in perspective in some of the paintings. I did it by purpose, to draw viewers’ attention to specific parts of paintings and to emphasize our primal need for food.
Upcoming Guest Artists
March: Ken and Michelle Workowski of the Nature Of Things
April: Jamie Heiden photographer
Driftless Art Fair peoples choice award winner
