By Roxanne Phillips
We are pleased to present to you our second in a series of interviews with artists whose works are featured in our new juried exhibit at Art Saint Louis, "Ordinary Lives."
This exhibit presents works by 42 St. Louis regional artists from
Missouri, Illinois and Iowa. This exhibition is on view July
31-Septemember 9, 2021 in our Gallery at 1223 Pine
Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Learn more about the exhibit in this piece by HEC-TV Produced by Paul Langdon.
We are proud to introduce you to artists Sarah Blumenfeld and Linda Mueller.
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SARAH BLUMENFELD
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| Featured in Art Saint Louis in-Gallery exhibit, “Ordinary Lives” (July 31-September 9, 2021): Honorable Mention recipient Sarah Blumenfeld, Clayton, MO. “Portrait of the Artist in her Studio.” 2021. Oil on Linen, 30”x26”. NFS. Artist’s statement: “I painted this self-portrait directly from observation in a mirror near my easel, using natural daylight. During the pandemic I moved my studio into an attic room, and I hoped to capture my precise feeling of the time and space.” |
Roxanne Phllips: What is it that you are most eager to convey through your art?
Sarah Blumenfeld: You know, when you have traveled alone, you often think about the people who would love experiencing that particular place, and how cool it would be to share it with them, and see it alongside them. When I make a drawing or a painting, I am wondering “Can you see some reflection of how I see things? Can I get close to sharing with you the immensity I feel, or the change in me, or even some small part of my experience in what I am depicting?” It is actually enough, for me, to capture an image of the experience for myself, but if others see my art, that is what I hope it is conveyable to them.
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| Featured
in “Ordinary Lives”: Sarah Blumenfeld,
Clayton, MO. “Portrait of Eliot Grace.” 2021. Oil on Linen, 25”x21”.
$2,400. Artist’s statement: “The muse is a beloved former middle school student and friend who came to my studio and sat for me, taught me more, and generously bared their courage and beauty.” |
RP: While working on an artwork, when is it most enjoyable: the beginning, in the middle, or the final moment?
SB: For me, there is an intense moment that arrives in painting or drawing when the artwork comes into its own being, becomes a thing vivified, almost independent of my hand. I call it “quickening.” Maybe it’s the lucky alignment of my vision and my efforts to apply values, hues, perspective. Anyway, sometimes artwork awakens quietly into a serious potential. It is NOT a likeness quality, or a procedure that I can reliably make happen. When it arrives it delights and surprises me. From that point I listen to the artwork and try to harness my manipulations and heed its beating heart. I can watch other artists in the process of painting and can delight in seeing the moment in their work as well, as it arrives to my eye, whether they pause to see it or not. It’s always a good idea to step back often and pause and listen to the artwork emerging.
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| Sarah Blumenfeld. “Still Life with Laura’s Pitcher.” 2021. Oil on Linen, 12”x16”. $650. |
RP: What was your career path?
SB: I have to admit I never even glanced much at visual art for most of my life. I wasn’t exposed to it and I scarcely responded to it until I was older and able to travel on my own.
I recently learned that I have aphantasia, or inner-mind vision blindness. I have only ever been able to see things with my eyes open or in my dreams. My imagination is made up of memory, and factual, sensory and spacial information but not actual vision. It’s a missing brain synapse connection thing. Maybe that shut down my interest in visual things for a long time.
I always did my best to paint with my love of words, as a poet and English teacher. One day I took a drawing class and instantly the wonders of staring at things and creating visual expression just overtook me. I was like seeing for the first time. I enrolled in community college classes, and classes at the St. Louis Artist Guild, and found some really talented and generous teachers there. I approached all the St. Louis figurative artists and oil painters and even sculptors of whom I was aware, and learned as much as I could from them. Many art classes are geared to the beginners, or the “weekend dabblers” (and many women of a certain age are often prejudged as hobbyists) but it is possible to push for more.
Eventually I realized that it would cost less than an MFA for me to rent space and operate a figurative art school where I could host public figure drawing events, and bring in guest teachers for group workshops. I modeled my concept after a great public studio I found in Nashville, called Warehouse 531. When the school here opened in 2018, I hosted traveling teachers and artists in my home, from all over, with the help of a couple of invested friends, until Covid hit. Then, without people traveling, and unwilling to risk hosting public classes in a pretty tight sealed-up studio space, I moved my studio into my home.
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| Sarah Blumenfeld. “Portrait of Mark.” 2021. Oil on Canvas, 18”x24”. NFS. |
Now I invite models and friends to my screened porch. I still participate in many zoom workshops, visit online with a mentor from New York, and recently have traveled to other artists’ studios to continue to learn.
It has always been important for me to draw and paint from observation, from life. I needed to master some realistic drawing, design and paint-handling skills, mostly for my self-credibility. I don’t expect necessarily to remain tethered to realism, but I was a step I knew I needed for my own development. Now creating and watching a painting develop seems to me a lot like what I have always been unable to do inside my imagination.
I think an art journey provides endless avenues for lifelong learners. Even after the skill work, there are discoveries waiting about mediums, surfaces, sculpture, architecture, history, color, and art movements, and people’s lives. Every model teaches me something. Every sketch reveals something. And then there are the learning challenges of art and technology!
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| Sarah Blumenfeld. “Preliminary Sketch of Emma.” 2021. Oil on Toned Paper, 10”x12“. NFS. |
RP: What is the biggest point of inspiration for your artwork?
SB: I spend a great deal of time studying art, even entire bodies of work. I am a regular at museums. I keep art books in every room in my house, so I can steal glances for inspiration. I once immersed myself in studying the world and work of Pablo Picasso. I spent hours and days in his studio-turned-museum in Antibes and in the collection in Barcelona. You can feel his very masculine force, his fearless imperative in the structure of his paintings. It crept into me and sent me home a far more potent artist than before. I felt the same recently in an exhibit of Alice Neel’s work at MOMA. She came out of the walls and spoke directly to me about humanity, art and courage.
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| Sarah Blumenfeld. “Venus.” 2018. Oil on Linen, 12”x18”. NFS |
RP: What qualities attract you to others’ artworks?
SB: My eyes respond first to a strong sense of light on form. It helps me feel immersed in the beauty of space. I can be transported to Amsterdam, northern Spain, a wide field in Massachusetts or a bathhouse in Paris. I am also drawn to strong contrasts, even chunkiness or bold lines, such as one sees in Manet, Courbet, or Cezanne. I love to witness confidence, the seductive feeling of learned spontaneity and fearless expression. I love the sensory impact of charcoal pulled across paper. The most powerful and beautiful art, like the poetry of Yeats, lights a fire aflame in me. It tells me to seize the day, see the beauty of the world and all humanity, and go try to paint it.
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| Sarah Blumenfeld. “Portrait of Colum McCann.” 2021. Oil on Linen, 16”x20”. NFS. |
RP: What is it you feel that people don’t understand about your artwork?
SB: For me art has become a serious endeavor and a pretty all-consuming practice. My sisters and most of my family members are non-visual-artists. I don’t remember ever going to an art museum or speaking of art in my early family years. I get the sense that many people in my life are rolling their eyes, wondering, What is going on with Sarah? Why all the nudes? Does she even cook anymore?
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| St. Louis-based artist Sarah Blumenfeld with her painting “Portrait of Colum McCann.” |
Learn more about Sarah Blumenfeld: www.instagram.com/sarahblumenfeldartist and www.instagram.com/sblumenf/
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LINDA MUELLER
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| Featured in “Ordinary Lives”: Linda Mueller, St. Louis, MO. “Untitled.” 2021. Photograph, 49.25”x33.625”. $2,800. |
Roxanne Phillips: In these extraordinary times what is it about the theme "Ordinary Lives" that spoke to you or your art?
Linda Mueller: The photograph accepted for “Ordinary Lives” was an accident that I had been preparing for — for 40 years. Shooting with the owner of a building that I wanted exterior photos for Elevations, I offered to shoot interior photos for him. An extraordinary building and perfect timing. The sun was ready, the craftsmanship of this second story room was unique - yet so many questions remain from any living spaces.
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| Linda Mueller. “LCM.” 2013. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 48"x49”. |
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| Linda Mueller. “HSL.” 2013. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 48"x49”. |
RP: What was it that first prompted your career/activity as an artist?
LM: I often say that I knew that I wanted to be a photographer, since I was ten years old - with a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera. I was blessed with lots of family support, mentoring and a ton of luck, I have been able to make a career and a living in photography.
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| Linda Mueller. “38.529743, -90.388930.” 2016. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 72"x25”. $1,600. |
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| Linda Mueller. “38.537210, -90.378034.” 2019. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 72"x18”. $1,400. |
RP: What was your career path? How did you get from being an aspiring artist to doing it?
LM: I dropped out of Kansas City Art Institute when I was presented with the opportunity to work in a large commercial studio with 10 of the best shooters that I have ever known.
My balance (and often struggle) is to maintain enough energy and space for creative photography. It has always been important to separate my two lives of marketing for others and my personal expressions.
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| Linda Mueller. “Countless.” 2012. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 36”x84”. |
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| Linda Mueller. “Gloryhole.” 2012. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 36"x84”. |
RP: Do you ever dream about your artwork?
LM: I have always been a lucid dreamer. Inspiration for prior bodies of work that dealt with healing and memories actually grew out of dreams. Since much of my work is assembled, dreams have brought many changes to works over time.
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| Linda Mueller. “38.614791, -91.215074.” 2021. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 17"x20”. $950. |
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| Linda Mueller. “37.614199, -93.411046.” 2021. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 24"x20”. $950. |
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| Linda Mueller. “39.313850, -92839190.” 2021. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 44"x22”. $1,400. |
RP: On what are you currently working?
LM: Every day that I can (weather permitting) I'm working on the Elevations series. I have a Google map with probably over 300 locations with GPS data and information on which direction the building faces. Google and Sun Seeker app have made scouting and planning so much easier than driving back roads waiting for accidental discoveries (although there are still hopefully many of those).
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| Linda Mueller. “RLM.” 2013. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 48"x49”. |
RP: What motivates you to continue making art?
LM: What else would I do? I've always loved my professional/commercial life; being paid to do what I love. I make room to keep my personal photography projects alive.
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| Linda Mueller. “34.502773, -83.196179.” 2019. Photograph, Archival Lightjet Print, 48"x28”. $950. |
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Learn more about Linda Mueller: http://taicheese.com/ and www.instagram.com/lmtaicheese and https://www.facebook.com/linda.mueller2
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Roxanne Phillips is an artist and art educator based in St. Louis since 2001. She earned a MFA in Printmaking & Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis and BFA in Painting & Drawing from University of North Texas. Roxanne is an adjunct art instructor at Washington University in St. Louis and has worked with Art Saint Louis since 2017 as Administrative Assistant and Exhibitions Installer. From 2018-2020 she was Master Printer for Pele Prints. Her works have been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout the St. Louis region including at Art Saint Louis, Crossroads Art Studio & Gallery, and St. Louis Artists’ Guild. Her work is currently available at Union Studio in St. Louis. She has served as exhibit Juror for several regional exhibits & art fairs. Roxanne is past Board member of St. Louis Women’s Caucus for Art.
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