Zoya Scholis

Name:  Zoya Scholis
Website: zoyart.com & artforpersonalgrowth.com

What do you do?
I paint mostly. I also like to dabble in ceramics and assemblage, even some writing. I lead workshops.

Where can we find your work?
I participate in solo and group shows in California and enter national and international shows four to five times a year.  A group I started, abstract7 will be showing at the El Marie Dyke gallery in Pacific Grove in January of next year (2013), and probably at Presentation Center in Los Gatos in the spring or summer. We hope to get a gig at the Toll House in Los Gatos for their Art walks this summer. 
I'll be doing Open Studios at Fort Mason (San Francisco) this year. I've also given interested parties private tours of my studio from time to time. Otherwise, I usually have one large piece displayed at Kaleid gallery, 88 4th St, downtown San Jose. I had a window spot but that may change. Then of course there is my website: zoyart.com. 

What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?
hmmm motivation. Seeing other art I like is inspiring. I make a point of going to see art in galleries and museums. Lately I really like the Oakland art Murmur. Looking in books, magazines or websites can get me excited too.

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process?
Content and process are inseparable and equally important. One without the other might not even be art. 

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you?
All the great painters from Velasquez to Cassatt to DiebenKorn, Joan Mitchell, Klee I could go on and on. Lately I'm interested in Jessica Dickinson, Maya Kabat and Howard Ikemoto.

If you could be any fictional character who would you be?
Fictional character? I don't read much fiction anymore except the short stories int he New Yorker. I don't think I can answer that question.

When do you get your best ideas?
My best ideas come as I'm painting. I can start with an idea but it always changes in the process. I welcome that.

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work?
I love oil paint with plenty of stand oil mixed in. It makes a delicious texture!

When I paint with watercolors I like to use atomizers and stencils, and Mop brushes. I wrote a book about it, Tape and Spray Watercolor, available on my website.

Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work?
I have a BA in Studio Art from Cal State East Bay. It was a great time but only so much can be taught and I hate being told what to do, especially when it comes to art. This is ironic because I teach art. I think maybe 20% can be taught mostly by demonstration. 60% is practice and learning from ones own mistakes which can be supported by a good teacher, and 20 % is Divine inspiration.

What would your creative work taste like?
Oils, like salted ice cream, watercolors, like water mellon. It occurs to me, in winter I might have a different answer.

How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience?
It takes faith. Art is my religion.

What advice would you give others just beginning their creative adventures?
Take workshops with artists you admire and remember, copying may be challenging and fun but it is not art.

Jonathan Demers

Name: Jonathan Demers
Website: See Below
 

What do you do?
Abstract, Fine art, Drawn animation, Photography
 
Where can we find your work?
http://www.facebook.com/jasvgbdfkl
http://jscribbled.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://www.youtube.com/user/jonathandaviddemers
 
What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?
My Grandfather inspires me as an abstract artist, I’m sort of pushing what he already does. Growing up watching the Simpsons, and then Futurama, and Family Guy and King of the Hill is what inspires me to be a drawn animator.  And Women inspire my fine art, supernaturally!

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process?
Well of course my finished work is important to me, but what is more important to me is the hours I’ve spent practicing. I would rather give up all the work I’ve done and still have the practice hours then keep my work and not have had the practice.

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you?
Pollock, Al Held, Salvador Dali, Matt Groening, Amanda Mikaelsson just not Warhol!!!
 
If you could be any fictional character who would you be?
Darth Maul

When do you get your best ideas?
They all come differently, and can’t be forced. When I’m doing hard manual labor for little pay!

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work?
Ball point pen, Wacom Cintiq, Oil
 
Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work?
Self taught and now educated, I was not as smart as a person until I let myself be a total idiot with myself in isolation in white paper notebooks. Lots of isolation in white paper notebooks.
 
What would your creative work taste like?
Wine
 
When you are not creating what do you like to do?
Go out to bars, down town San Jose. Johnny V’s

How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience?

Meditation
 

What advice would you give others just beginning their creative adventures?
Buy a canvas, some paint, some brushes and work on one painting for at least six months. 

Karen Honaker

Name: Karen Honaker
Website: www.karenhonaker.com

What do you do? 
This year has marked my 50th year being a painter.  I got my fine art degree using oil paint, but switched to watercolor when we moved to San Diego 30 years ago. 

Where can we find your work? 
Changes all the time depending on the economy, but my website, www.KarenHonaker.com, continues to be the place to see my latest work.

What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?
When you use everyday objects to create painting compositions, every moment is a possible painting.  It is that constant search that makes life interesting.  

   

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process?
The content/finished product is more important to me.  It does not matter what technique is used when the product conveys your own voice.   

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you?
 Being surrounded by local artists and seeing their work inspires me every day.  The artists who take my workshops, also, take me to new artistic heights.  Just seeing my artistic influence come out in their paintings is my greatest inspiration.

If you could be any fictional character who would you be?
Lil’ Red.  You need to be from Nebraska to understand that one!

When do you get your best ideas?
Usually while swimming or walking my dog.

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work?
I use transparent watercolors and a particular kind of watercolor paper that allows me to suspend my pigment on the surface.

Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work?
I have a BFA from University of Nebraska.  My degree taught me how to maintain a studio of my own while creating a body of work needed for the end of the year.  However, they should have added marketing classes, something I have had to learn on my own all these years.

What would your creative work taste like?
It would be smooth to the tongue, but spicy when swallowed.

When you are not creating what do you like to do?
I love spending time with my dog, Daphne, a mini Schnauzer.  Travel is very important to me, and finding some time for some golf fills up my extra time.

How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience? 
When you begin painting at the age of 6, my creative side just feels natural to me.  My creative outlet is painting, but if you have that side of you that is begging to “come out”, it will in some form.  It is just who I am.

What advice would you give others just beginning their creative adventures?
 Listen to your insides and fulfill that creative edge or your life will only be half full.  Do not stop no matter what anyone says.