Artists

Meet the artist Marcia Santore !

Brief introduction of yourself.

I’m a painter, originally from New England then California, upstate New York, Austin, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and back to New England. I have several different painting series going at the same time. I’m also a writer and editor. I just started a blog called artYOP! which is all about artists and their stories.

Which techniques do you use?

Right now, I mostly paint with acrylics. I learned on oils (which I love—especially the smell) but switched to acrylics when my first child was on the way. They are quite different painting media, so I basically learned to paint all over again. About 10 years ago, I needed to get out some older work to fill up a rather large space for a solo exhibit. I rediscovered some oil paintings I hadn’t seen in a long time and found that I really missed that surface and that palette. So I took up oils again for a while, but acrylics keep calling me back. I like the palette, and the immediacy of working with acrylics. And I like being able to collage elements into my paintings in very permanent way using acrylic media, and that with acrylics, I can paint on loose canvas sometimes.
MarciaSantore_DanceOfDisernment

Dance of Discernment © Marcia Santore, acrylic, 40 x 30

Does your work engage with current events (and how)?

Art and current events don’t move through the same time-space continuum. We are still looking at cave paintings and being moved by them. Art goes on over vast periods of time and we look in on it during our short lifespans. But as a person of the 21st century and a feminist, my own feelings and beliefs do end up in my work even without a conscious attempt to engage with current events. My work is less about expressing feelings and ideas than about invoking them. Female power and strength is a large part of what is invoked—certainly something we need more of in the world.
MarciaSantore_TooLate

Too Late © Marcia Santore, acrylic and mylar on loose canvas, 50 x 36

Can you describe your typical working day?

One of the advantages to being self-employed is that I don’t have a typical working day. I need a lot of flexibility to manage my own art work, my writing and editing work for clients, and the various schedules of my family members. Ideally, I like to paint in the morning for several hours, but sometimes it’s the afternoon. Every day is different.

Which painting would you choose for your living room and why?

I tend to rotate the art in my house, depending on what has just come back from a show or if an oil painting needs to hang up for a while to cure. But the one piece that stays up is “Slip,” which is the one that started my ongoing interest in non-repetitive patterning. I promised my husband that this one would stay “collection of the artist.”
MarciaSantore_Slip

Slip © Marcia Santore, acrylic, 36 x 36

Please discover the univers from Marcia Santore here: www.marciasantore.com

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