Pascale Monnin was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1974. She then moved to her mother’s native country of Switzerland as a child. After receiving an extensive art education in Switzerland, she returned to Haiti in 1994 as an artist. Her work often involves symbolism and mysteries of life and the universe. Monnin has exhibited her work internationally.
A houngan, pastry chef, and prolific painter, Gerard Fortune was born on June 6, 1925, in Pétionville. His art career began in 1978 and flourished with the recognition of his talent in the book Where Art is Joy/Haitian Art: The First Forty Years, by Selden Rodman. Affiliations with multiple galleries account for the large number of his paintings. It is estimated he had made thousands of paintings by the late 1980s. The late dealer Issa el-Saieh, of Galerie Issa in Port-au-Prince, encouraged Fortuné to make fewer paintings and spend more time on each one. But the artist, paid the same sum each Saturday by the gallery owner, always thought he would get paid more money if he produced more paintings.
From “Masterpieces of Haitian Art: Seven Decades of Unique Visual Heritage” by Candice Russell. Schiffer Publications Ltd, 2013.
The vividly colored paintings of Malcah Zeldis, one of America’s most popular self-taught artists, celebrate her life, her heroes, and major religious and historical events. She employs a lively narrative style to express her philosophy of life and her religious and personal beliefs, and she often includes herself as a character in her paintings, even when she is depicting a historical event or a fairy tale. Her art is bold, colorful, and expressionistic.
Zeldis began to paint when she was living on a kibbutz in Israel in the 1950s. However, after a well-known Israeli artist critiqued her work- noting in the process that he thought a “great artist is living in this kibbutz”- she was so overwhelmed that she did not paint again until after she returned to New York in 1958.
Zeldis has been a favorite of those collectors who moved from the romantic art of the early 20th century to the folk art that is popular today. In this sense, her work has served as a bridge between the two. Her paintings are of uniformly high quality and a delight on the walls. Serious collectors of contemporary folk art will want to consider her work for their collections.
Madeline Starling is a rising Dallas, Texas artist whose Peruvian, White and Lakota Sioux background was utilized early in her rural depictions of life in general. With striking, vibrant colors and festive scenes; her raw-naive, Expressionist style has won numerous People Choices Awards & Acclaim Awards in several exhibits in the Dallas, Texas area. She has been called “The Happy Artist” for the great feeling of well being and “feel good” effect that her style causes those who see her art.
Bill Potts has worked with scrap lumber, paints, and materials that he picked up along the way. He neglects nothing that can become part of his broad vision. His works include astonishingly varied themes of the extinct and contemporary world: dinosaurs, animals, airplanes, classic cars, historic figures, and ethnic folk heroes. Executed as single pieces or as part of a tableau, his prolific work of the past decade has been discovered by critics and important collectors of folk art.
Bill Potts at his studio.
Bill Potts currently lives and works in Denver, Colorado and has achieved much critical acclaim during his artistic career.
In one newspaper article written by Steven Rosen of the Denver Post, Potts was named the “highlight of the show;” the show was an exhibit of Colorado Folk Art and Artists at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. Rosen wrote: “Bill Potts, a local carver who uses wood scraps to make wry and touching tributes to contemporary black culture. Unlike so many other creators of folk arts and crafts, he doesn’t pretend the electronic age has bypassed him. A black man, Potts keenly carves tributes to those African Americans who have become part of our cultural heritage thanks to the media. While his Michael Jordan doesn’t look exactly like Jordan, it is so full of vibrancy, a sense of action and artistic goodwill that I find it preferable to any poster-size photograph.”
Antonio Poteiro’s (1925 – 2010) birth name is Antonio Baptista de Souza. He was born in Santa Cristina, Portugal, and moved to Brazil as a young boy. In Brazil he worked as a potter, where he earned the name “Poteiro,” meaning “potter.” He transitioned from potter to ceramic artist and eventually to painter, at the advice of Siron Franco, a local artist. Poteiro has said that he sculpts and paints images from his imagination, his dreams, and the Bible. His art shows an intelligent use of color and repetition.From “Icharo” about Antonio Poteiro.
Nick Sasoya is an artist who lives and works in New Mexico.
Nicolette Vigil lives and works in New Mexico.
Enrique Vigil lives and works in New Mexico.