| Issue #25 - September 12, 2008 |
Honoring the Artist: Louise Tramontano
It's not often than a person uses art as a metaphor for her own life, but then again, cover artist Louise Tramontano isn't your average individual. (She and her husband have traveled to places like Mali and India to teach the residents agricultural skills.) The calmness and stillness conveyed by the cover's ambience have a direct relevance to Tramontano's world-view.
Q: What is it about the cover that you especially relate to?
A: The boats are similar to row boats the way they are moored very closely together. It's like being surrounded by people and things you care about. It gives me serenity.
Q: How about the gradations of light in your work? How is that related to life?
A: It's the need to be tied to things that are important as you go from dark to light, like the ups and downs of life.
Q: How do you decide what settings or subjects to paint, what will serve as a metaphor?
A: I do anything that atttracts me at the moment. For example, my daughter sent me some pictures of Venice which showed the bleakness of the scene, where color comes through in some areas while in some areas it's moody. I'm going to paint that.
Q: How about places in the United States that have attracted you?
A: We liked traveling in June to Colorado and New Mexico; we even stayed at a dude ranch.
Q: I know from a past conversation with you that you really bond with the people and the land wherever you go. For example, your trips to Mali where you taught horticulture and business practices.
A: We are thinking of going back there as part of the country's "Farmer-to-Farmer Program."
Q: Do you have any stories to tell from your time there? Something which you learned that you didn't expect?
A: I had a car accident, and there was no ambulance in the whole country. They put a splint on by using a cardboard box. This is what life is all about, the experiences you have. I learned you can survive anything even if you think you can't.
Q: Back to your art. What's your work process like? Do you work on several things at a time?
A: I do one work at a time. I set it aside, look at it, think about it.
Q: You sound like you have my astrological sign. That means you are detailed, goal-oriented, organized.
A: Yes I am. I also do things to please me. My paintings define me. I don't do them to please galleries.
- Marion Wolberg Weiss
You can email Ms. Tramontano at tlt431@yahoo.com. The artist's work can also be seen at Framing Productions. Tel: 516-364-6000.
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