Featured Art for Issue 9: Jonathan Faber

Jonathan Faber

We had the opportunity of featuring six of Jonathan Faber’s paintings in our newly-released Issue 9. Jonathan’s award-winning work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout New York and Texas including the Austin Museum of Art, the David Shelton Gallery, and the Galveston Arts Center.

His work fuses the beauty of both abstract and realistic environments. Jonathan describes his new collection as “being involved within the paradox of memory and observation – seeking out subjects that co-exist between the expansive and the intimate, the recognizable and the ambiguous.” He explains that “they manifest from memories of places or things observed, lived with, or passed through.”

Jonathan draws inspiration from the houses and backyards from where he grew up: “Many things inspire me but my most recent subjects are connected to domestic objects and landscape settings. Other sources of mine examine conversations, things I’ve read, and things I’ve listened to. These associations tend to lean more into the abstract spectrum.”

He has received awards from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2011, the Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2003, and has been nominated three times for the Arthouse Texas Prize. Faber finds creating art is about the journey and the discovery: “To me the transformative process of making paintings doesn’t necessarily lend itself to an ultimate goal. I find it’s much more exciting, productive and ambitious to try to solve problems and take risks. So goals for me tend to suggest an ending where I am more interested and concerned with discovery and where that may lead.”

This new collection takes on a slightly different tone than some of his previous work: “I think about past work as being in two camps — graduate school and post graduate school. Graduate school was about trying on a lot of different hats and mimicking for better/for worse some of my past heroes, such as Gerhardt Richter for example. Post graduate I found myself introducing a broader range of invented vocabularies and moving more or less in a linear direction from one painting to another, responding to the discoveries made in each painting. Now I look at what I make as a hybrid of many interests with a better handle on orchestrating and decoding the rules of representation.”

For those looking to hone their talents, Jonathan suggests new artists “work hard at their practice. Stay engaged with your art community so people know who you are and what you’re up to. Very few artists can live off their own work. Most artists need a second job to support themselves. It’s very important to be honest and admit to yourself what kind of artist you are.”

Being an active part of the art community is essential: “Go to every art event you can and get to know the right people in that art community. If you are the type of artist who doesn’t enjoy the social aspects of asserting oneself in this way then you will need another job like teaching a painting class or working in a design field. Just relying on the quality of your work and the purity of your spirit/conscience rarely puts enough food on the table to maintain a robust artistic practice.”

Jonathan Faber currently works part-time as an Assistant Professor at Southwestern University Georgetown in Texas and is a Lecturer at the University of Texas in his hometown of Austin. You can see Jonathan Faber’s work in Issue 9 and on his website.

 

Jonathan Faber

Launch of Superstition Review Issue 9

We are happy to announce the launch of Issue 9 of Superstition Review. Issue 9 features the work of 10 Artists, 10 Fiction Writers, 8 Interviews, 10 Nonfiction Writers, and 25 Poets. Following are some of the artists and writers featured.

Jonathan Faber
Jonathan Faber

 

Art: Jonathan Faber’s work has been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout New York and Texas, including David Shelton Gallery, Champion, Cue Art Foundation, Austin Museum of Art, and the Blanton Museum of Art.

 

 

 

H. Lee Barnes
H. Lee Barnes

 

Fiction: H. Lee Barnes has published three collections of short stories, a novel, and Dummy Up and Deal, a nonfiction narrative. He teaches in the English Department of the College of Southern Nevada.

 

 

 

Sandra Cisneros
Sandra Cisneros

 

Interviews: Sandra Cisneros is the author of novels: The House on Mango Streetand Caramelo, short stories: Woman Hollering Creek,  and poetry collections: My Wicked Wicked Waysand Loose Woman.

 

 

 

Adrienne Kalfopoulou
Adrienne Kalfopoulou

 

Nonfiction: Adrianne Kalfopoulou lives and teaches in Athens Greece, and is on the faculty of the creative writing program at NYU. Her most recent book is Passion Maps (Red Hen Press), a poetry collection.

 

 

 

Peggy Shumaker
Peggy Shumaker

 

Poetry: Peggy Shumaker is Alaska State Writer Laureate. Her most recent book of poems is Gnawed Bones. Her lyrical memoir is Just Breathe Normally. In 2013, Red Hen Press will publish Toucan Nest, a book of poems set in Costa Rica.

 

 

 

Submissions Period for Issue 10: We publish art, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry twice a year in April and December. Our Fall submissions will open September 1-October 31 for Issue 10, which will launch in December 2012.