Rituals: Cynthia Sheppard

Cynthia Sheppard has been a force to reckon with as an illustrator. For the last few years she has been putting out stunning works of art by anyone's standards, and her fan following has been growing in leaps and bounds. Add to this her role as an Art Director with Wizards of the Coast, and you've got one seriously busy lady.

Here's the catch: although well versed in traditional media, Cynthia has been working mostly digitally. Its the preferred method these days, allowing innumerable amounts of editing and cutting down drastically on the time to create a piece for publication. She is proficient in digital painting and her results are just as painterly as an actual oil painting. But, as many artists lament, "its just not the same". The ritual of oil painting is a multisensual, zen practice and I know more than just a few artists that pine for the Good Ol' Days of sitting at an easel, palette in hand, laying down dabs of paint on a springloaded brush.

The Ritual of Dreaming I

 When Cynthia signed on to do a show at Krab Jab, she knew she had a really intense year ahead of her. She knew she wanted to do a fully traditional show, and was excited to get down to business and create new works in oil. But as all oil painters know, the process of painting in oil can be time intensive. It takes time to set up your palette, prep your substrate, work an area of your piece (because of the way oil seams as it dries, you need to "patch in" an area so you don't wind up with seam ridges), then clean up. It can be messy and smelly, so you need to have ventilation and lots of rags or paper towels on hand. You have to work in optimal and unchanging lighting conditions: due to it's refractive quality, oil paintings can look really different in different lighting conditions. And of course, its not exactly portable and needs time to cure.

Working a full time job and oil painting was a challenge, but Cynthia rose up to it. The result is a body of work rich in metaphor, expertly executed, both simple in composition but complex in meaning.

The Ritual of Haunting

Her work is about the ritual of loss, of reflection on the things we no longer need and leaving them behind. Of letting go of the things that we cannot change. She addresses reflection in the piece "The  Ritual of Haunting" as a metaphor of insomniatic review of past regrets in which the female figure strides past two hulking stone figures, pausing to grasp the powerful hand of one of these guardians. Who really holds the power in this light?  In "The Ritual of Remembering", a figure wrapped in a dark cloak holds a winged mask on a staff, ravens (or black birds) gathering around her. It's unclear if they are attacking or protecting the figure, who is lost in a melancholic thought. She is still while the air swirls around her, indicating her frozen in time gone by.

The Ritual of Remembering

Her three still life paintings ("The Ritual of Keeping/Recording/Ending") are set up as momento mori, objects meant to recall the passing of time, of life. The dog skull took on a deeper meaning, as Cynthia's dog passed away during the time of painting this set (this isn't his skull). Her palette is limited and muted but the brush strokes are wonderfully full of life, perfectly encapsulating these moments in time and space.

The Ritual of Keeping

Cynthia proves herself a talented traditional painter in this body of work; no one can dispute that. But with hardly a whisper, she also pulls us into a dark, powerless place we've all found ourselves in at some point in our lives, haunted by our fears and regrets, loaded with a heavy remorse, almost completely missing the power of the light, be it a tiny spark or an inner glow brushed onto the surface with a little cadmium, a little white. Cynthia points the way to hope and redemption, and in the act of release through ritual, we are freed and can once again move through time.

"Rituals: The Art of Sara Winters and Cynthia Sheppard" runs through June 4th, 2016.

~Julie Baroh

Sara Winters: Rituals

Sara Winters (nee Betsy) is a relatively new artist on the scene. She illustrates in the gaming industry, and although proficient with digital painting, the girl can paint traditionally like an old hand. Recently established as a coordinator for the local salon-styled artist cafe The Conservatory, she runs their life drawing sessions and is often among the packed house of artists, drawing and painting to her hearts content.

"Innocence - I", oil on board

Sara and Cynthia Sheppard are close friends and it seemed a no-brainer to have them come up with a two-woman show. They chose the theme of "rituals" and went to work on a series of personal pieces in traditional medium for this show. What emerged from both is a body of work that is dark, mysterious, and in many ways deeply mythological in terms of the feminine mystique.

For Sara, she chose the path of the ritual of the hidden. Her model is nude, exposed, and raw, with nothing but a white veil and a silver necklace. The figure is clearly struggling internally, her body and face twisting, searching, and although she does address the viewer, the viewer is more like a voyeur in her transformation. We are only given hints of the narrative, leaving us to figure out what is happening as the series of images play out before us.

"Escape - V", oil on board

Sara played out her series much like a storyboard, but deliberately leaves out conclusive connectors. We are left to our own devices of imagination, which plays out as either redemption or resolve. The veil represents that which is tucked away from the human ego, forcing us (or perhaps the figure) to seek out the truth of our existence, be it ugly or liberating. Much like the tarot's High Priestess (who sits in front of the veil of truth), there is a mythological thread that runs underneath Sara's work, an esoteric and magical reality that we often ignore in our everyday existence. If we could only see what is really behind the veil, we can see the real truth of ourselves.

Possession, graphite on paper

Sara is clearly a talented and skilled painter and her drawing skills are top notch. In that regard, she sits comfortably with many other skilled painters I come across. What pulls her ahead is her use of tension in her work, and her fearlessness of addressing the part of the feminine experience that isn't exactly a beautiful thing. It's dark without being overly literal, and there is a slice of hope in the darkness, the possibility of release. This kind of narrative is difficult to achieve, especially for a young artist. Sara nails it out of the gate.

"Rituals" opens Saturday, May 14th and runs through June 4th. Sara will be in attendance at the opening, along with Cynthia Sheppard. The online catalog goes live the evening of May 14th.

~Julie

It's a New World...

I haven't posted in a while... I got really sick late last year, and anything not crucial to basic function was dropped for a while, including my posts. It took about four months to recover from the illness, and with a lot of help I was able to keep things running.


One of my personal issues is perfection; I like to do everything a certain way. The major problem with that is that nothing actually gets finished. I can't tell you how many abandoned posts I've made because I couldn't think of the perfect thing to say, or the perfect image to add. I hit deadline and I either abandon ship or push out a rushed article that I'm not happy with.

The reality is that nothing is perfect, and I'm certainly nowhere near perfection myself. People don't read my posts because they're looking for an example of perfection, right? No, I think people read what I have to say because they're looking for the method behind the madness. No amount of eloquence can upsell that.

Allen Williams - "The Warded Man", from Dream Covers

We just finished up a spectacular group show called "Dream Covers", curated by book designer Lauren Panepinto. It's a hard show to follow up, the work is so good. Cynthia Sheppard and Sara Winters are opening up this next show called "Rituals", in which both have created very personal oil paintings and graphite drawings. They dropped off their work today, and we lined it up along a wall and stood back and talked over the work. It was fascinating to look at, with all their art there. It reads like a surreal storyboard, something kind of fantastic and sci-fi in nature, very Stanley Kubrick. My eyes kept swatting left-right, left-right, my brain trying to make sense of it all. Its a very different feel from "Dream Covers": each piece in D.C. is perfection, a full statement on its own, but Rituals is like an exquisite corpse between two women, one story morphing into the next, not yet fully formed. The viewer has to figure out where it goes and what it really means.

Sara Winters

Cynthia Sheppard

I think rather than blather on and on about why this is a fabulous show in one perfect little blog post, I'm going to post more regularly, and make smaller, less perfect posts. Messy, thoughtful, possibly silly, but more true to form. I can handle that. I think the artists won't mind, either.

"Rituals" will open up on May 14 and run through June 4th. Sara and Cynthia will be at the opening reception from  6 - 9 pm. 

~ Julie Baroh

"Marriage is a Work of Art"

So what does the average person think of when they think of a married artist? Most of us think of stormy rivalries, deceptions, jealousy, a la Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Or we think of one of the artists (usually the wife) putting away her brushes to raise the kids and do the taxes, so selfless, while her partner works tirelessly on his craft.

I know that when I was in art school back in the olden days, I was terribly allergic to the concept of dating, much less marrying, another artist. I was self-aware enough to know my competitiveness would ultimately thwart the relationship, plus, if you've gone to a classic art school (especially 20+ years back), the odds of getting hooked up with a self-absorbed prig was pretty high. No, a regular Joe was the only option for me, and I did in fact marry 20 years ago to, of all people, a boy from my high school crowd I bumped into while in college and reacquainted myself with. None of my artsy couple friends lasted more than a year or so, much less married.

So, can love and art survive together in wedded bliss? And if so, how?

I've met some lovely couples in the art world, and it apparently seemed that marriage can work, and in many ways, bolster the creative works of both people in the marriage. In talking with many of these couples, it occurred to me that this would make a really interesting exhibit. I invited seven couples and gave each of them free reign to use a wall space however they choose.

A few of these couples are barely out of newlywed status, such as Mark and Sara (nee Betsy) Winters and Justin and Annie Stegg Gerard. A few of them span decades, such as Norman and Tory Taber and Brian and Wendy Froud. But no matter how new or established the relationship, it's abundantly clear that something was worked out between them, and the result is very special.

Take Greg Spalenka and Roxana Villa, for example. This couple married later in life and although Roxana has an art background and can hold her own with illustration, she became enamored of the world of scents and perfume. Sensitive to chemicals, she strove to create all natural, unusual scents first for herself, then to sell as Illuminated Perfumes. Greg and Roxana worked together on her product, with him creating art for her packaging and marketing endeavors. The result is sensuous and reflective of her vision (and his as well). These two enjoy working together despite having very different directions in work (he is a graphic artist and workshop instructor with his Artist as Brand).

 #5 Bois, Banner image for Roxana Illuminated Perfumes, Greg Spalenka

 Vinod Rams and Emily Fiegenschuh tend to work differently on a daily basis, with him working in the video game business and Emily working from home on illustration projects. They met and bonded over drawing, and it's clear that this lively couple enjoy each others company. Although they seem to think their work is totally different, it's pretty easy to see they influence each other heavily in their work. Both enjoy working in gouache (which is a type of opaque watercolor) and one can guess these two probably sit up late at night together eating Emily's delicious brownies (she bakes) and chatting and laughing while painting away at their respective drafting tables.

Children of the Forest, gouache, Emily Fiegenschuh

The Green Man, gouache, Vinod Rams

Norman and Tory Taber have been working together on children's books for ages (see Rufus at Work), and both know how to collaborate together without killing each other. Norm works as an art instructor at SUNY Plattsburgh, and Tory works from home on her illustrations while raising their two daughters. Both of them work in separate studios, and Norm has been developing his assemblage work of found architectural objects as well as antiquated and quirky photography. Tory has stuck to the tradition of illustration, creating art for ballet and theater posters among other things. Despite having very different styles and modes of working, there is a very clear connection between the two, especially in the love of nature, the fairy realms and their children (which feature regularly in both their work).

Are You Still Cold?, Acrylic and gouache, Tory Taber

Cut the Clouds Full, Assemblage, Norman Taber

Omar and Sheila Rayyan have been together a very long time and have worked side by side supporting each other over the years. She's done the "regular job" thing (often artists have to have at least one of the two work a job to make ends meet while they work on their careers) while he's toiled away at his illustrations, creating an impressive body of work in the last few years. Sheila hasn't been too far behind, working in pencil illustrations but also creating lovely stoneware and pyrography pieces (a burning technique to create designs on wood) through her Mother Spoon Studio. They have very different styles of working, but both share a sense of humor in their work and relationship that no doubt keeps the creative fires burning.

Princess' New Pony, Oil, Omar Rayyan

Sun, Stoneware, Sheila Rayyan

Mark and Sara Winters are very recently married, but with Sara's old soul (she's 25 years old) and their clear respect for each other, it's like they've been together much much longer. When they work together at home, they often critique each other's work ("brutally honest" is how Sara puts it) and help each other stick to their deadlines, as both work in the game industry as illustrators. This is a very competitive industry and it's easy to get hung up on how many contracts one pulls in versus the other, but these two can hold their own and more importantly, they see the bigger picture.

Medusa, canvas print of oil painting, Mark Winters

Serra, Digital painting with gold leaf on canvas, Sara Winters

Justin Gerard and Annie Stegg Gerard are another newlywed couple, and easily the darlings in the imaginative realism circuit. Funny, bubbly, attractive and incredibly friendly, it's hard to not like this current Power Couple, as they both have been burning up the publication industry as of late, winning awards and accolades all over the continental US. But they keep it real: Annie just wants to raise chickens in the backyard of their Georgia home, and both love painting together. Iconic and mythic imagery arises from their brushes and pencils: Justin's work has a strong nod to classic illustration, while Annie is clearly following the path of the PreRaphaelite. I have a feeling this relationship has a long, successful road: they simply adore each other.

Limnaee of the Lake, Oil, Annie Stegg Gerard

The Last of His Kind, Oil, Justin Gerard

And finally, we have Brian and Wendy Froud, married 35 years and counting. They met while "The Dark Crystal" was in production (she worked for Jim Henson, he was the concept designer for the movie). Both collaborated for "Labyrinth" (including using their own baby Toby for "baby Toby" in the movie) and she's popped up as his fairy model from time to time over the years. While they both have very clear, defined styles (she's stayed true to her sculptural roots, and he continues to draw and paint the fairy world) they have collaborated together many times, producing several books together. Brian has his head in the clouds and Wendy has her feet planted in the ground, making for a balance that has fueled their relationship all these years.

Kneeling Faery, Watercolor, pencil, color pencil, Brian Froud

Faery Woman, Mixed media polymer clay, Wendy Froud

So okay, you can have it all: a career in the arts and a partner to share it with who understands your passion and drive without it blowing up all over the place. Things don't need to smash, mad screaming doesn't need to occur, and nobody needs to be left behind in the dust. Kids can be raised successfully, families are fed and shod, and you can even have egg laying chickens (if your husband agrees to it). These couples prove that marriage really is a work of art and love can mold and enhance each person to reach his or her greatest potential. I'm definitely sold, and I think anyone visiting this exhibit will surely agree.

"Marriage is a Work of Art" will open April 11th and runs through May 2nd. Online catalog goes live April 12th.

~Julie Baroh, April 2015