virginia asman • illuminage studio

I have needed to make some recent adjustments to my website. Due to a glitch, I am no longer able to add to my “Fine Art” section; however, you may still view many earlier examples of my work there. Going forward, I will be displaying my new work in this blog section.

ABSTRACTING WITH SHAPES

In this series I have sought to achieve abstraction by overlapping my stylized figurative drawings—bursting out of their frames with the intention of creating new shapes. Colors were added randomly with a little extra shading to help differentiate the positive from the negative. My drawings were originally rendered in pencil on paper and later imported into the digital platform. Then, using an apple pencil directly on the surface of my ipad, I was able to apply “watercolor”, “gouache” and “ink” to complete each artwork.

In much of my work in the past few years. I’ve concentrated on incorporating traditional pencil drawings into digital media. More recently, along with the drawings, I’ve also begun painting digitally using electronic tools which emulate the behavior of real brushes and paints on an ipad instead of a canvas or paper. Almost like the real thing but with the flexibility of the digital media that so sparks my creativity!

Here’s a little gallery of some of my favorites. You can click on the thumbnails to enlarge the work and find more information about each piece.

One only has to walk through an urban park to discover the widely diverse activities taking place within. Most of the artwork in this series resulted from drawings I made of people “doing their thing” as I strolled through Washington Square Park in NYC. Other pieces were inspired by sightings in Asheville, NC and Santa Fe, NM.

I imported my original drawings made on paper into the digital platform where I added photography to establish the settings.

The series debuted at Art On Barcelona Gallery in early 2024 in a group exhibit titled Kaleidoscope.

This exhibit, presented in January/February 2021,
chronicled my journey as an artist while living in Santa Fe.

Click below to visit each part of the exhibit.

PART I—FIRST IMPRESSION: MONTAGE
PART II—EXPLORATION: LINE & COLOR

Slot Canyon at Tent Rocks, NM; Cathedral Rock, Sedona, AZ

The covid pandemic of 2020 gave many beautiful natural sites a time out from the usual influx of visitors. I chose two—Cathedral Rock in Arizona’s Sedona and a slot canyon located within New Mexico’s Tent Rocks—to include in an online summer exhibit, Art Unlocked! at Gallery35 in NYC. The following video shows my process that began with photography and continued by digitally layering and colorizing abstracted elements to unfold the imagery of these sites At Rest.

Click below to view ART UNLOCKED!—Gallery35’s online exhibit of work created by 14 member artists before and during the pandemic!

ART UNLOCKED!—June-September 2020

“Twilight Fantasy” hung for just two months at joe’s Dining in Santa fe, nm.

my work is on the wall through june, but joe’s is currently closed due to covid-19…

...so i have created a virtual tour instead!  Pour yourself a glass of wine and enjoy!

for more information about the series and a closer look at each piece
click here

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Over a year ago I was invited to launch an exhibition at a venerable Santa Fe institution: Joe’s Dining. Catering to locals, Joe’s—named after “Joe everyman”—has fed Santa Feans for twenty years and counting! It also presents 6-month rotating art exhibits and now my turn to hang had finally arrived! Rather than choose work from my existing collection, I decided Joe’s deserved something different! This brand new series—Twilight Fantasy—showcases the southwest just before nightfall. A deep blue sky is the common element bringing together diverse imagery including a coyote, a pueblo, a graveyard, cowgirls of old, crows —and, of course, Zozobra (old man gloom)!

TWILIGHT FANTASY
January-June, 2020
Opening Reception
January 11  4-6PM
Joe’s Dining
Rodeo Road, Santa Fe, NM

By coincidence, two galleries where I show work are both presenting exhibits this fall addressing social justice concerns of our time.

Coming To America at Santa Fe’s Art On Barcelona Gallery poses an invitation to look, think and enter into conversation about immigration. Fifteen artists answered the call to offer 31 pieces of artwork.

For this exhibit, I am showing 2,000 Years of Flight showcasing refugees of note whose contributions to the world are considerable. The value we place on them contrasts with a political attitude that demeans persons now appearing at our southern border looking for the same opportunity for a better life as were the people shown in this artwork.

COMING TO AMERICA
September/October 2019
Artists’ Reception: October 6  1-3pm
Performance Event: October 13  3-5pm

Art On Barcelona Gallery
107 W Barcelona St, Santa Fe, NM

Gallery35 in New York City has launched We Bend, Not Break, an exhibit by 13 artists focusing on the perseverance of African-Americans and other historically and currently marginalized groups!
My work,  The Struggle Continues and Fabric of Progress is described at the gallery website: http://www.gallery35nyc.com.

WE BEND, NOT BREAK
September 8-October 20, 2019
Artists’ Reception: September 21  6-8pm
Closing Reception: October 19   6-8pm

Gallery35
30 E 35th St, New York, NY

What is Zozobra?

AKA “Old Man Gloom, “he” is a 50-foot tall cloth behemoth stuffed with papers upon which Santa Feans have written their glooms from the past year. He is then placed at the far end of an athletic field to meet his fate as throngs of locals and visitors chant “burn him!” This is the 95th time this tradition has marked the beginning of the annual Fiestas de Santa Fe.

Zozobra head, 2015; Burn Zozobra, 2014 viewed just after I moved to Santa Fe!

How did I win?

Earlier in the summer I entered an art competition for the Seventies-themed 2019 poster and T-shirt. It was a labor of love transforming this ugly creature into a disco icon! Even after being notified that my John Travolta look-alike would be silkscreened onto the official adult T-shirt, I had to keep design top secret until the unveiling just one week before the Burning of Zozobra.

The unveiling at ZozoFest; modeling the fringed shirt!

Read more about all the winning Zozobra artists at https://burnzozobra.com/2019-official-zozobra-artists/