Art is among the experiences I rely on to alter what I am.
—James Elkins, The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing, p. 41.

Master of Light, Reflection, and Form, Latchezar Boyadjiev
San Francisco Bay Area Contemporary Glass Sculptor

Latchezar Boyadjiev knows a lot about loss and impermanence. Born in Bulgaria, music was his first love but the Communist Party forbid him to pursue it. He turned to art and found his true means of emotional expression. After a year at the Academy of Art in Sofia, he transferred to the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he studied with renowned artist Stanislav Libensky. Seeking freedom in his work and for his family, he escaped to Italy, only to find himself in an overcrowded refugee camp. Through persistence and sheer endurance, Boyadjiev and his family finally reached the United States in 1986. He has a deep reservoir of experiences and emotions to draw on for his stunning work.

Latchezar’s work has always focused on the human body, even though abstractly, but recently he has concentrated on the female torso. As you can see from these few representative images, he combines light, lines, and motion to create remarkable, expressive pieces. In speaking of his goals for his creations, he says:

Latchezar Boyadjiev lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area. He has won many awards and exhibited nationally and internationally.

More of his work can be seen at the Jane Sauer Gallery in Santa Fe, NM and on their website at http://www.jsauergallery.com, as well as on his own website at http://www.latchezarboyadjiev.com.

Titles of works, from top, clockwise: Joy, Torso, and Devotion

* * * * * *

The Mystery and Transcendental Magic of Taos, NM, artist Randall LaGro

“Down an ordinary alley off one of the busier streets in Taos is a shabby door in need of paint. Open it, and one enters a room full of fantastical paintings, monotypes, and panels, all awash in the clear northern light falling from a wall of windows. The work seem visions from Gothic fairytale, or half-remembered images from a haunting childhood fever dream. This is the studio of Randall LaGro, an artist and printmaker graced with the unusual talent of creating works that are often equal parts of the conscious and subconscious world . . .”

-- Blue Rain Gallery

I was stunned when I first saw LaGro’s work—it was as though he had somehow gained entry to my brain’s kaleidoscope of color, surreal images, nightmares, and kinked and soaring dreamscapes, morphing them with every click, every reorganization, every fragmentation and reanimation of perspective. That is, my brain and everyone else’s. In his incredible pieces, the artist puts form to thoughts both strange and spiritual, redemptive and merciless. He is an exceptionally masterful painter who roams far out of the box! As the artist himself says, “This is an invitation to dream, think, and wonder.”

More images of Randall LaGro’s work can be seen at:

Mary Martin Gallery of Fine Art, 39 Broad Street, Charleston, SC
http://www.marymartinart.com/randalllagro.html

Blue Rain Gallery, 117 South Plaza, Taos, NM
http://blueraingallery.com/artists/randall_lagro/

To return to FEAST's main page, click HERE -