Cultblender: Sylvia Ortiz Domney

Selected works

mitlon studies thinking of carl sagan

 

milton studies the garden 1

 

milton studies garden 3

 

milton studies emergence 2

 

milton studies emergence 1

 

first digital man 7

 

graphic faces 8

 

in the dreamscape 9

 

graphic faces tos

 

crow studies yellow

 

in the dreamscape s

 

crow studies july 07

 

japanese gothis 5

 

tlazelteotl aztec godess

 

young girls studies red

 

Q&A with Sylvia Ortiz Domney

We are very proud to be able to show you some of the works by american artist Sylvia Ortiz Domney. For those of you with an interest in her work, we've done a short interview with her as well, presented here as a convenient Q&A.

Q: Can you tell us something about how you got into art?
A: I got into the study and field of visual arts more from my background as a dancer and teacher than any planned career as a visual artist. When I first started teaching ballet I had a small class of about 12 little girls. I decided to make them each a Ballerina Cloth Doll for Christmas, I have always loved dolls, and got the idea that I would like to make some dolls myself. From this Christmas gift project I continued making cloth dolls for several months before I decided to take an art class. My intention was only to learn a little of how to render a face in order to makes my doll faces more interesting and varied. This is how my study of art began. From a simple desire to develop my embroidered dolls faces. Two years and many paintings and drawings later, I started doing ceramic sculpture. My digital work, the third of my art adventures, began when I tried doing a drawing with my mouse. Painting and Digital now combine with my photography to create digital collage and my work with pastel ? Both the electronic and traditional painting techniques are used in all my work.

Q: The range of your art-career covers almost every artform imaginable, from ballet to painttings and from film to sculpture. How does one affect the others?
A: My background in dance and photography were a great foundation for my painting and clay work. The movement and sense of line that ballet demands was perfect for how I like to paint and macro photography gave me the sense of seeing a very focused and simple design; both strong elements in my painting and ceramic style.

Q: Do you feel that as an artist you have a message for the world? And if so, what is the message of your art?
A: As far as bringing a message to the world as an artist; I don?t believe that there is a difference between the actions of an artist or a secretary, which is what my work was before starting my art career. Our actions in life, either as a positive force or negative force, are the important things of our lives. It is not what I paint, just as it is not important if I go to church. What is the important message is how I treat people, do I feel compassion and empathy for the lives, not only of my loved ones, but for the man, woman, and child from another culture and nation.

Q: One of your main interests as an artist is the folk art tradition. Yet, you make use of computers and internet for your art. Howdo these new technologies influence your work?
A: The major influence on my art style is Folk art and Ancient sculpture. Folk art because I so love the idea of the visual work being created by all people, not only from a specialist. Folk artists, self taught and the ancient sculptors primarily create art from a need to speak of their immediate world and the spiritual world, here is a power in their works. It is that immediate understanding of the power of their work that I so compelling. One very important aspect of all these works is their very strong design quality, the sheer power of their designs is a marvel.The use of the Internet, I think is in itself an art form, it is the new canvas about and for the human race.  It is a remarkable liberation of the creative force in humans, both as communication, image making, and political power. The computer, coupled with the Internet, is used my millions of people to create their individual art and talking space. People do art now that never thought to do so before, thousands of people write now because they have an online community to speak to. I use the internet, like everyone else to reach other people, to share my visual creations with someone else and to see what other artists and people are creating. As to the ?quality or what is good and what is bad, those titles are not important to me, what is important is the excitement and the idea of the democracy and freedom to expression.

Q: You work from the city of Albuquerque. When you look that city up online, you get a sense that they are really investing in a healthy art scene. Do you think Albuqueque will be ?the place to be? in the future?
A: The city of Albuquerque has been a great location for me. First of all, the weather in this region is simply wonderful, all the four seasons. But always like ?the season at it?s best?, never too much. I think because the city is large, but not huge, the citizens are not lost in the sheer high numbers like in LA or other large urban centers. Not only the art scene, but small theatre, education, and public art centers are open to the people of the city. It is possible to work with some the local art venues to exhibit an individuals work or to present group shows, actors also have many opportunities to work in our small productions theatres. Dancers also have good productions that they can work with. If you work hard and really want to become a part of the art scene in this city you can Albuquerque does a lot of community art projects and is trying hard to improve the look of the city and now there is a great deal of excitement with the new Film Production business. We are one of the new ?Good Film and Television Production? locations in the USA. I do see Albuquerque as a ?Good Place to Be?. Like any other city, there is much that needs great improvement but the has made many changes to improve both the economy and the continued development. Most of the huge art tourist scene is still in Santa Fe, but our city has many things that are wonderful. Our museums are great, we have one of the best Hispanic Cultural Centers of the entire country, a great classical music festival every June, art galleries that are not all about the tourist dollar or The Great Southwest art market, and everything is very easy to reach.