For Nichole
1. Name: Brice D. Lory
2. Country USA - Wisconsin
3. Place of Birth/date Platteville, WI. 11/11/1985
4. Type of art Lately, I’ve been finding myself drawn to people, which reflects the work in writing I’ve been doing. I think writhing, which I’ve really only started seriously 2 or 3 years ago, has had a huge influence on my art. While I keep a strong interest in simplicity - a result of my more minimalistic experiments from about 4 years ago - I’ve been drawn to portraits, figure work, and occasionally expressive landscapes; that is, pieces that reflect the emotional aspects of people as well as trying to capture elements of human nature. I’m currently working on a series of portraits of strong women, who radiate an attitude of independence - from rough attitude to quiet self-sufficiency. As I have many demands in life, the work isn’t going as fast as I’d like.
5. Media I’m especially fond of oil paints. I’ll occasionally use acrylics, though I find them less versatile and their colour tends to be a lot flatter than I’d normally like. The long dry-time of oils is something I actually find to be helpful rather than a hindrance, as it allows for easier blending, and I don’t get the opportunity to work as often as I’d like anyway. I also use watercolours and gouache sometimes, but they’re hard to use, though fast. With drawing I prefer white and black charcoal on a neutral coloured paper - grey or brown - to be able to really emphasize the highlights and shadows. I’m a huge fan of contrast. I also dabble a bit in photography, but I am by no means very knowledgeable in the medium.
6. Style I would find it very hard to define a style for myself. I tend to be rather experimental in what I want to do from piece to piece, though currently I’m finding myself drawn to a sort of realistic style that still emphasizes brushstrokes and other nuances that are idiosyncratic with the medium I’m using. In the past I had worked very in a fairly minimalist style, and a love of simplicity and unusual composition - particularly large amounts of negative space/background against a smaller figure/foreground - and formats (I often prefer a 2:1 aspect ratio, if not even larger, if possible. There are times I prefer a square format as well. I’m not particularly fond of the standard 2:3 ratio, though it can certainly be useful) has remained rather prevalent throughout my artistic development. The key to my art, however, is one of expression and emotion. My art isn’t simply trying to represent an image, but also wants to express, or even emote, an idea or attitude or aura. Like my newest series, for example, wants to express an aura of independence, strong attitude, maybe even a pride in self-suffciency. My art, really, is trying to reach into people and explore them. I suppose, however, if I were to put a label to encompass the vast majority of my work, I would call it “minimalistic expressionism.” Though earlier I had labeled myself as an “emotionalist” - but this term has fallen out of favor with me because there’s more to art than just emotion.
7. Definition of style To define my label, it would be best to take it in chunks. Minimalism is, essentially, the process of creating art with as few elements as possible. That is, a single coloured canvas, would be a prime example of a minimalistic work. Minimalism can be used in varying degrees, but much of my work, such as Mountains are west, strive for an elegance that can be found in simplicity. I find myself being more or less minimalistic depending on the piece and time. Expressionism is, to me, exactly what it sounds. I’m trying to express something beyond the simple element of the subject matter at hand. This differs from impressionism, for example, in that impressionists work to give an impression of a subject matter through expression, light, and colour, where I try to use a subject, light, colour, atmosphere - anything really - to express. A piece of someone who’s sad should not only show sadness in the person but also uniformly express sadness in whatever elements possible. My work is successful to this ideal in varying degrees.
8. Interesting/Personal Information Something interesting about myself is that the visual arts aren’t my current main focus. I play cello, and I’m currently working on getting my bachelor’s in music performance from University of Wisconsin - Platteville. In addition to music and the visual arts, I also have a passion for writing. I’m currently working on a couple books, which I hope I’ll finish. One I’d started got rather stagnant, and I hope that doesn’t happen with these two. I also love to write poetry and my deviantART site has a lot of my poetry on it as well. I’ve always felt that I could have had art be my “main” focus if I had emphasized and nurtured that aspect of me more than music when I was in middle school and high school. Instead, I chose music, but I feel, frankly, that I am rather proficient in all three art media. Each media - writing, music, visual art - have their idiosyncracies and are great for expressing and representing different things. Depending on what I want to express, I find myself leaning toward a different medium. Unlike many people, I don’t feel any medium is above another. I remember a fellow musician told me a quote that I flat out disagreed with. She had said, basically, that music is the ultimate art form, and all others are striving to be able to express what music does. I told her I disagreed, and she said, “but you’re a musician aren’t you?” And yes, I am, but that’s not the point. Every art form is useful for its own reasons and none are superior to the others. I feel very connected to the Mid West, having lived on the same farm for about 20 years now, and this farm has been in the family since we arrived here in the 1830s. I feel attached to the land, but not in the way a farmer does, though I think if even I end up living in Chicago or London or wherever, I’ll always feel I’m a country kid. In that way, I’ve sort of set out to become the Voice of the Mid West. I’m not really sure of anything else all that interesting…
9. 3 Other Artists who work in this style. How different. How Similar Good luck with this one, Nichole. I’m afraid I have no clue.
10. Images I’ll have some up on deviantART. I already have a couple. I’ll put some more up by tomorrow, hopefully.
11. Time Line
-1985- Born in Platteville, WI
-My Childhood - I’ve always been drawing, ever since I can first remember. In fact, my first memory of drawing was this frog I drew for a calendar that our family was making for my great grandmother. Considering I was, I think, 4 or maybe 5, the frog was surprisingly good.
-2000-2004 - My time in high school was when my art really began to mature. Before then, I was trying to work in a more fantasy style, with elves and dragons and things, but during high school, I was beginning to understand that I’m more interested in emotion and people rather than world-building. Tom Swailes, our art teacher was a huge influence and encouragement. He encouraged me to work how I saw fit.
-2002 - I was introduced to the music of the Kronos Quartet, which brought me to find a passion in the avantgarde and modern styles, not only musically, but in all forms of art.
-2003 - in English class, we read White Noise by Don DeLillo. This book not only had a huge influence on my writing, but also on my visual art.
-April 2004 - Perhaps this is one of my most influential months for visual art. I had two independent art studies that semester, and for this entire month, I had decided that rather than working on big projects, I would each day do a new sketch. That is, one period was dedicated to colour - chalk pastels were my weapon of choice because they were fast and blended pretty well - and then black and white in the other - white and black charcoal on fairly low-grade paper. What would happen, is that Mr. Swailes has a huge collection of old National Geographics in the art room, and I would randomly choose a photo from one and draw that photo for a class period. Some pieces I worked on for longer, particularly with the charcoal. This entire process of experimenting and sketching showed me that I work better with faster projects, and helped me to understand more about how I work and why. It was a great learning experience.
-May 2004 - Graduated from Platteville High School, and I enrolled into UWP in the fall.
-I’ve taken art courses in UWP, and I hope to take more to further my artistic career. I occasionally consider adding an art major/minor, but I don’t really have a conclusion about that yet.
-I hope, once I finish my latest series, to have art exhibited in Badger Brothers, our local coffee shop that also acts as a sort of gallery for local artists.