Unusual Perspectives Define the Photography of Valentin Stoev

Interview with self-taught Bulgarian Photographer
by Miriam Schulman, @schulmanArt 

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SchulmanArt: How long have you been a photographer?
Valentin Stoev: I have been taking pictures for the past 10 years now. I do not consider myself a professional photographer; however,  I love doing that at every moment I have spare. I have taken on shooting two weddings previously for friends, but selling something professionally I have only started about two months ago.

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SchulmanArt: Where did you study photography?
Valentin Stoev: Ever since I got my Minolta 35mm film camera about 10 years ago I have been planning on taking courses and studying photography but never have I done so. I started learning off the internet and different photography books but mostly experimenting. My style has evolved since and I catch myself that I keep changing it and things I like about photography in general.

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SchulmanArt: What are your inspirations?
Valentin Stoev: My inspiration is traveling! I love exploring the world and nature, so I don’t miss a chance to just leave my town whenever I have some spare time, even if that is just going to the forest a few minutes out.

Photographer on the other side of the camera in Barcelona

SchulmanArt: Tell us how you get these fantastic photos?
Valentin Stoev: I do like to travel a lot and most of my wildlife photographs I take in the mountains here in Bulgaria. I like going camping and staying out of any civilization once in a while and stay close to the nature. All I need is a tent, a lovely spot right by a mountain spring, my friends and camera and that all powers my for better pictures.

Art for Autistic Adolescent

NBC Show Parenthood Focuses on Asperger's Syndrome

by Miriam Schulman, @schulmanArt

Parents embrace their son's obsession by decorating room with bug art

This year I became involved with the television show Parenthood after they purchased an original artwork for their permanent set.  I wasn't told when the episode would air that included my art nor which set the mosquito painting was destined for. Week after week I watched the show, wondering which character would like the art. Would the brothers who opened and renovated a music studio use my green and gold artwork in their olive green studios? Would the young woman who got a new apartment hang it on her walls? Perhaps the artist grandmother would "paint" my picture. 

As the episodes wore on. I learned that one of the most fascinating characters on the show, Max, had Aspergers. This is very unusual for a "sitcom" to focus on a child with bad social skills. Usually they focus on the popular students doing regular mainstream activities. I really enjoyed this aspect of the show and when I learned his obsession was with insects I felt my art was destined for his room. Still, I had not found my piece and was left wondering if perhaps they did not use my art after all. Since they had purchased the art last July and I had been watching since September I had nearly given up but was still enjoying the plot and realistic characters that the show focuses on. 

Mosquito Deity was part of a series of insect art

In an episode that aired February 14th, Max is picked last for a basketball game in gym. I remember that feeling of being picked last or close to last during recess in elementary school. I was surprised these popularity contests still go on in schools-- and yet pleased that NBC writers did not sugarcoat an all to familiar situation. The gym coach does nothing to alleviate this "acceptable" form of bullying. Then when Max goes to the sidelines, we learn that another disabled kid's needs are also neglected. Could the gym teacher have handled this differently? Why was the boy in the wheelchair not engaged during gym? Could he have been used as a referee or score keeper?

Mosquito deity, 16x20" collected by NBC for Parenthood set design

Later, in Max's room we learn that the gym teacher will let Max skip class if the parents provide a  note. This is pure laziness on the school's part to not want to deal with a bullying issue or make accommodations for children with special needs.  Watch the episode and let me know what you think! And while the father talks to his son, you can look at my art which I spotted just over the actor's shoulder.

You can purchase a print of this Mosquito Deity for your own child. 

Kid with special needs or autism need understanding, not "fixing".

Five Not to Miss Art Shows in NYC Spring 2012

Best New Art Opening this Month Around Town

by Miriam Schulman, @schulmanArt

Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting 
now through May 13, 2012

Just because Valentine's Day is over you can still romance your sweetie with a trip to the Frick Collection. Nestled along fifth avenue, this former residence of Golden Age billionaire Henry Clay Frick, The Frick Collection possesses some of the world's best masterpieces from masters ranging from Rembrandt to Monet. This exhibition, inspired by Renoir's La Promenade of 1875–76, a significant Impressionist work in the Frick's permanent collection, brings together nine full-length vertical grand-scale canvases from around the world and includes the romantic couples dressed in the finest fashions of Renoir's Paris.

Rembrandt's World: Dutch Drawings
now through April 29, 2012

Looking for more springtime romance in New York? Go to the Morgan Library Museum. Morgan spared no expense when collecting books and art and creating a showcase for them. you and your lover will have plenty of privacy while looking at the great exhibits here. The one I want to see is the collection of masterwork drawings by Rembrandt and his contemporaries.

Rembrandt & Degas Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
 February 23–May 20, 2012

Rembrandt lovers have plenty to choose from this year ( see also blog article: Rembrandt Road Trips ) and Degas lovers too! (see blog article: Degas Day Trips) Well here is the show that offers both. So if your sweetheart is an old master lover and you are an impressionist aficionado-- you can see both hand in hand. This exhibition opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art takes a look at how Degas was influenced by Rembrandt

The Steins Collect Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde 

February 28–June 3, 2012

Personally, I can only take in one exhibit per visit-- but if you don't suffer from sensory overload, perhaps you might want to squeeze in one more exhibition from the Met-- or save it for the next visit. The Steins Collect are sure to include crowd pleasing favorites. Come see what these taste makers chose for their own personal collections from modern Parisian avant-garde. This exhibition unites 200 works from their collection. Patron of the arts as well as personal friends of Picasso and Matisse-- this show tops my list of must see art this spring.

Cindy Sherman 

February 26–June 11, 2012 

Finally- I am really looking forward to the Cindy Sherman photography exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
Working as her own model for more than 30 years, Sherman has captured herself in a range of guises and personas which questions stereotypical female prototypes in the media.A must see for anyone interested in gender studies and/or an interest in modern portrait photography. Bringing together more than 170 photographs, this retrospective survey traces the artist’s career from the mid 1970s to the present.

What would you want to see in New York?

mentioned in this article: @metmuseum, @frickcollection, @MuseumModernArt, @MorganLibrary

Black history is American history

The drums of Africa still beat in my heart

by @schulmanArt, Miriam Schulman 

Morning Spirit, 24x24" Abstract Art

I have been infatuated with the highly stylized and abstracted forms from Africa, be it sculptures, masks or reliefs. This video is a glimpse of some of the art I have been creating inspired by the rich cultural heritage of Africa. For each piece I used an actual museum artifact as the starting point for an original artwork. Click HERE to see all African Art for sale.

What do you love about African art and its influence on modern art and design?

Designer Sweaters for Man's Best Friend

Puppy Love

by Miriam Schulman, @schulmanArt

~SchulmanArt speaks with Emily of Elsa & Em~

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SchulmanArt: How long have you been knitting?

Emily: My grandmother taught me to knit when I was young, so I have been knitting off and on for over twenty years. For a long time, I was a seasonal knitter -- cozy hats and sweaters in the winter, and sewn garments in the summer. I rediscovered a passion for knitting a few years ago, and opened my ETSY shop shortly thereafter, in September 2008. The shop was sort of an accident, which started with my knitting sweaters for my own dog, Elsa. After enough comments from friends that I should start selling, I did just that.

What is your favorite material to work in?

I lean toward natural fibers when knitting for myself and my own dogs. I just love a good wool that knits like a cloud. A knitter has to love the materials they work with, or it just isn't enjoyable.

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How do you come up with your designs? 

Most of my designs are the result of finding a yarn I love. Sometimes it's the feel, sometimes it's two colors that just work together, or the variegated shads of a hand-dyed yarn. It sounds silly, but when I feel connected to a yarn I am inspired. All of my sweaters start out as a design for one of my own dogs, so each one is truly personal. When I come up with something that works, it makes it into the shop.

What do you enjoy most about your experience selling online?

It's easy to think of selling online as an anonymous experience, but for me it's just the opposite. Custom orders often result in a fair amount of conversation back and forth, and it always makes the sale feel more personal. I love hearing about and seeing pictures of the dog I'm knitting for.

Check out all her hand knitted dog sweater in her etsy shop!

Do your dogs keep you company while you create? 

Luccia is often snoozing on the couch with me. I think she secretly enjoys the rhythm of my arm bumping her as I knit. And although I spending an embarrassing amount of time on my couch, working my way through reality TV shows while I knit, I'll knit pretty much anywhere. Dog sweaters are such portable projects, that I almost always have one stashed in my bag.

Looking at African Art during Black History Month

The Chic Style Influence of African Artby Miriam Schulman, @schulmanArt

make a dramatic statement with an African Painting

This African tribal paintings was created from studying original African art sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The tribal wall art has a wonderful abstract quality giving it a modern sophistication. The African artifact for this painting was a commemorative sculpture of a priestess and was part of a special exhibition titled “Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures.” which took a look at sculptural traditions from West and Central Africa created between the twelfth and early twentieth centuries.

Commemorative Sculpture of Priestess

High Priestess, 20x20" Watercolor on Canvas, African Art

The artifact which inspired this work was a sculpture of a high-ranking priestess with close ties to a Bangwa chief in the Cameroon Grassfields. Alisa LaGamma, Curator, Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, of The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes the art in this way: Simply standing before this dynamic female sculpture that pulsates with life is electrifying. She is captured with her head thrown back at an angle, mouth open, knees and elbows bent in an active stance with her weight shifted to the right side. Both the rattle grasped in her right hand and animated facial expression suggests that percussive sound and song animating her frenzied movement. The forces of gravity are evident through the downward pull on the prominent conical volumes of her breasts. Across the entire wood surface the carver’s adze marks further contribute to the immediacy of the sculpture’s raw expressive power. To view this artistic landmark as a centerpiece of this exhibition allows us to appreciate what is truly singular about it.While artists who immortalized leaders through sculptural monuments in Africa as elsewhere often favored idealizing them in a timeless manner as static figures with serene and reflexive demeanors, in this instance the subject is energy personified poised to spring into motion.

Detail of African Art

The dominant colors in these artworks are red, earth tones, stone gray, black and white.
I made seven drawings from the African Art collection during a visit and painted them with watercolors later in my studio. These abstract interpretations would look great in your house and complement your modern global home decor.
 

Tribal art detail

Title: High Priestess
inspiration: African Hero Series at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Size: 20x20" Watercolor on CANVAS
Media: archival watercolor technique with varnish, allows this art to be displayed without a frame.

Artistic Achievements of African Artisans Inspired Modern Art

A Colorful Black History Month

by Miriam Schulman, @schulmanArt

Africa Art: Rain King, 20x20" watercolor on canvas

Black History Month, or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history.

Detail of Tribal Artwork

I recently had the privilege of visiting an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art "Heroic Africans" which highlighted artistic achievements of African artisans. I spent time in the galleries sketching original artifacts. From these sketches I created a series of artworks.

This particular artwork draws inspiration from a sculpture of a king. This beard is braided and the sculpture may have contained his actual hair.

Scanned details of African Painting

Title: Rain King
inspiration: African Hero Series at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Size: 20x20" Watercolor on CANVAS
Media: archival watercolor technique with varnish, allows this art to be displayed without a frame.

Purchase: click here->African Art

Interior Design by Libby Cameron, photo credit Jonny Valiant, artwork by Miriam Schulman

In a room decorated Sister Parish protégée Libby Cameron combines chocolate browns, silvery grays, acid yellow and a touch of turquoise. This designer knows that a room shouldn't be too perfect -- it should always hold a surprise or two. African art adds the perfect touch that complements the colors and adds global flair.