In such a fast-paced, money-driven world, creativity can easily get tossed aside. But why is it so important to stay creative? International and local artists shared their views with us.
"Art is a form of expression. I get my emotions and feelings onto art and share It with the world. I enjoy art fairs the most because talking to people face-to-face, sharing my art and telling its story is something that fulfills me and makes me happy,” says Cathy Immordino, a photo artist from Los Angeles.
“[Some] people when they get angry, they do violent things. But if you get your anger and aggression out making a piece of art, then you don’t have to take it out on a person.” She adds that talking about the emotions behind her art helps her to “let it go and move on.”
Her latest series is called Heads; and as a former actress, she laughs at society’s often unrealistic beauty demands.
“What keeps me in the arts is that it’s love and passion. It’s something that makes me understand myself better each time I work,” says Denise Carvalho, a Brazilian-born visual artist and professor who lives in New York. Her artwork has been featured in several cities including New York, Buenos Aires, Paris and Florence.
“Through any form of expression, we are allowing ourselves to become better people, to grow in our lifetime and to make our world better.”
Carvalho also thinks that human connections are part of the art process, and this is one of the reasons art galleries are so important.
“The artist is completing the work in complete solitude while the viewer has another role, which is sociability.”
For James Darwin Corbiere, an Anishinaabe artist from Manitoulin Island, Ontario, creating Eastern Woodland art is “very healing.”
He paints on planks of white ash and doesn’t go with a preconceived notion of what his artwork will become.
“It basically tells me what it wants to be and tells me stories at the same time,” Corbiere says. “Right after the pandemic was declared, I realized the earth was healing. And that’s what came up, this image of Mother Earth sitting in the hot tub, taking a break.”
He also points out that art helps bring connection to people and that if you “look at a piece of art and think about it even for half a minute, it can change your way of thinking, or mood; it can do a lot of help.”
Corbiere will open an art gallery in Cowichan Bay, where he recently moved with his wife. “I’ll make enough, and I’ll be happy,” he says.
Three years ago, Max Khusid was leading a team of data analytics and web development for Apple. After nine years in Silicon Valley, he decided to leave the tech industry and travel the world. In 2018, during his travels, he discovered an artist in Armenia and realized what he really wanted to do: introduce artists from all over the world to America.
He spent a year in the San Mateo Public Library in San Francisco learning all he could about the arts industry and then opened an art gallery, Art House SF, representing artists from around the world, including France, Italy, Armenia, Morocco and Chile.
“We work in these tech companies, and we build products and fancy gadgets. But the most unique and interesting product of all is a human being”.
He also thinks the industry needs to change.
“It’s very hard to make a living if you’re a good artist, while it’s very easy to get a good salary working as a software developer,” he says. “I don’t have illusions with changing the world, but I like to play a little role in supporting art because I think it’s important”.
They will all participate in Art Vancouver, to be held at the Vancouver Convention Centre East, Sept. 23–26, 2021.
By Cindy Vezga