“Since the pandemic I have been working on my new series Super Natural where I infuse color into the natural landscape for all my projects. I start with a concept and as the art progresses it takes on a new life of its own. I let the muse inside dictate where the work will go.” (Super Natural three, Photography by Cheryl Maeder)
The Future of Art
A story about the artist Cheryl Maeder and her journey through the art world from past to the future.
Art past Covid-19 – in the eyes of Todd Levin
“Art is the imagination of life, so intensely felt that it has entered into and become an integral part of us.” But we can lose sight of this crucial force if we only think of art in terms of our careers, the caring of success, drugs of every imaginable type, turning on and turning off, marking time and making money, loud and hollow laughter. The world about us would be bleak except for the world within us, and all art bears witness to this fact. In this world of apathy and vanity, when we actually encounter great art, we experience something that staggers and deeply affects us. All art should aspire to this: to lead us to a fresh conception of the world.
The role of the artist, in short, is to help us live our lives. The artist does this by creating a world to which we can turn, again and again, so that we eventually are unable to conceive of our lives without that artist’s imagination and feeling. “Art is the crucial interface between the imagination and reality, the thing that makes life deeper and broader than it might be without such insight.” (Todd Levin, New York Times)
Tell us about your artistic style?
I am a fine art photographer & video installation artist. I work from the Inside/Out, therefore my style is very fluid and changes as I grow and move forward. I have always been concerned with breaking through stereotypes both in myself and in my work. My photography work was the inspiration for the Dove Campaign, Real Women, Real Beauty, which transformed the way women are viewed in the global media today. In my photographs and video installations, I am currently focusing on Connection. Connection to ourselves, each other, other beings on this planet and the environment. We are the most fulfilled when we operate in a state of connection.
Tell us about your background?
In my early twenties, I moved to Switzerland. While there, a friend lent me his camera, and I began to photograph. Another friend gave me their darkroom equipment and that was it. I basically fell in love with photography and worked day and night shooting and then playing in the darkroom till all hours. I remember after the first image I printed in the darkroom, I came out of the room and declared to myself and those around me, that no matter what, being a professional photographer and artist is what I want to do with my life. I then went to the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, Switzerland and studied photography. I came back to the States and eventually opened my studio in San Francisco. In 2005, I came to the Miami Area and immersed myself into the world of fine art and filmmaking. I have never stopped since. Art has never been a hobby. It is who I am.
What are you changing with your art?
We are all on this planet to create and we each have our own self-expression of who we are. It’s the job of the artist to bring out what is inside, what they are feeling, what they are conceptualizing, and bring it out in their work and I do that in my fine art photographs and video installation art. My work keeps moving and growing and it keeps changing but there are some things which are constant about it. My work is about connection. Connection to the self, each other, to all lifeforms on this planet and also a connection to the entire universe. I believe we are all interconnected and we are not separate from the entire universe, so that goes into all my work without me trying. I feel that each of us has a muse inside that is larger than just our little ego lives and that guides the world.
Frequency communicates through nonverbal language the vastness of the infinite universe. It takes us on a psychological journey- questioning whether our universe is just one or many co-existing parallels? – Frequency Video Installation
LINK: https://vimeo.com/295444357
How would you best describe the art world today?
The art world is in a flux. Covid-19 transformed our digital world into a more inward society. Everyone had to be with themselves. We have more of a desire to communicate now, to connect. Everything is becoming more global and that is really a great thing.
The designer Dror Benshetrit was talking about how everything used to be sustainable. He is the founding principle of Super Nature Labs. He said, “In the world we became very sustainable but now its about us elevating to the next step of harmony and the harmony is designing and creating art for all life. Not just for humanity but for all living beings on this planet.” That to me is the evolution to the next step. We need to heal climate change. It is not just about us humans. We have been greedy and now it is about the entire planet and being conscious of the environment and other beings on this planet. Our souls are connected and my art mirrors this believe.
Cheryl’s work is thought provoking. Providing the new millennium collector an experience to see more.
