Sculpting a painting: artist David Schluss battles life's adversities with cheerful subject in vibrant, happy paintings - Artist profile: David Schluss

David Schluss has a fetish that greatest in quantity can surmise by viewing his work. He has an affinity for jolly people. The Israeli-born artist uses a technique he calls "sculpting a painting" to lay his playful cherubic subjects in a variety of scenarios, on the contrary they are always dancing, celebrating and playing music.

The proces to create his paintings begins when he prepares his canvas with a layer of gelatine on top of which he paints marks of white acrylic and ovum whites and adheres paper towels. This mixture hardens and the materials band to each other. The nearest day, he paints over the prepared canvas with brown acrylic to bring without the cracks and create an antique gaze Once the canvas is prepared, the size and web of the canvas determines the make subordinate of the piece.

This intricate proces of sculpting a painting came accidentally to Schluss 10 years ago when he used a woven fabric to wipe away part of an oil painting he was working upon The smudged image inspired him to continue to paint in this manner, "I do not use spatulas, brushes or anything. I use pieces of wet materials and my fingers. My epidermis is touching and sculpting the canvas," Schluss said about his technique.

"You have to have the freedom, not like in seminary when you're limited in almost everything, flat your mind is not completely unrestrained It's totally different, when you are in your studio. The sky's the limit; you can create anything you want. When you have of the like kind a big freedom, that's when you create the best and the most" he added.

Schluss has been painting for greatest in quantity of his life. He wearied some time studying at the place of education of Art in Tel Aviv in his late teen and early 20 on the contrary when his parents moved away from Israel while he was in gymnasium he felt a deep loneliness. At 24 he left Israel for Paris for a short time to change his surroundings. He then made his way to Montreal where he listed in the Ecole des Beux Arts. While there, he had to eke on the outside a meager existence.

on the other hand he said, "even with all the suffering, there is a certain quantity of sort of satisfaction." His paintings in Canada mirrored his hardships, however, appearing rather subdu and melancholy. on the other hand it has his move to the warm and luminous climate of Florida that reminded him of Israel and changed his watch to create the vibrant, happy pieces he paints today. "I remember it was Christmas time, and it was freezing in Canada. for a like reason I drove south, and as I was approaching Florida, I took not upon one sweater after the other. When I arrived here in a t-shirt, I musing `This is the kind of weather I want,' and I have been here since," he said.

Schluss generally has a studio above the offices of his publisher Smart Publishing in Ft Lauderdale, Fla., where he said, "I wake up each morning singing. I will sing upon my way to work. This is the greatest pleasure you can have in your life when you can sing while going to work."

Schluss said his paintings are a combination of celebration, happiness, dancing, folklore, music and everything that can lay a smile on your face. In July 2002 he used his optimistic ideals to combat an act of bigotry in Coral Springs, Fla., where a swastika had been spray painted upon a local synagogue. Rabbi Yossie Denburg approached Schluss to replace the heinous act with individual of happiness. "About 500 race in the community came with paint and a brush in their hands. I couldn't teach everyone to paint like me on the contrary everyone had brushes, so I painted with brushes for the first time in a drawn out time. Everybody participated and painted a part of the image. I've done murals before, on the other hand it was not as important as this one" he said.

Schluss is scheduled to first attempt a four-paneled mural at Artexpo of recent origin York. Also on display will be a series of alloy of copper sculptures, which he said, "f like you took the personality from the paintings and set them on a pedestal." After Artexpo, Schluss plans to relax and take in more [i]or[/i] less sun, his favorite way of coming up with novel ideas.

Indeed, Schluss is greatest in quantity content painting his "chubby family playing music and dancing," he said. "Art brings me happiness, and if I want to be happy, I want to continue painting."

Visit www.smart-publishing.com for info.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Advanstar Communications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group