Joel Bergner

While growing up in Illinois, Joel took a few art classes in high school and college, such as figure drawing and photography, though he was mostly self-taught and developed a unique style of drawing and painting inspired by his experiences in life and the people he encountered along the way. He worked various jobs, from roof construction to restaurant work, but it was community-based work that became Joel's passion and direction in life. He worked closely with schizophrenic patients in a mental health facility and then went on to work with the homeless population in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood as a homeless center and shelter supervisor.


Despite a busy schedule, Joel always found time to paint, often staying up most of the night creating large-scale and extremely detailed works of art that were intense, emotionally powerful, and increasingly socially conscious. Joel eventually turned to painting murals, and spent the summer of 2001 working on the mural "The Storm" in a Taylor Street cafe called Jamoch's (now called Demitasse Cafe).

During this period Joel spent time in Honduras and later in rural Dominican Republic, where he worked for short periods of time as a volunteer doing construction work and teaching.
The mural, entitled "De Frontera a Frontera," featured social commentary on the relationship between wealthy tourists, Dominicans, and Haitians on the island, as well as everyday scenes of life in rural and urban areas of the country. The mural, located in San Francisco, made such an impact on the community that it was voted the "Best Public Mural" at the 2003 Precita Eyes mural award ceremony.

In the spring of 2004 Joel worked for an organization in El Salvador as a teacher, and he was also an International Election observer for the presidential elections that year.
In 2005 Joel painted "El Inmigrante" on the corner of 23rd Street and Shotwell (in San Francisco), which was recently featured in the New York Times.

In the fall of 2005 Joel went to Salvador da Bahia, in Brazil, to live with the family of some friends. During these months Joel taught English and art classes for children and learned Brazilian Portuguese. He lived in a community of Candomble, an Afro-Brazilian religion, and painted four paintings of the deities, known as Orixas, for the community.

Joel continues to live in San Francisco, where he has worked for more than three years in a treatment center for emotionally troubled teenagers who struggle with violence, suicide, drugs, and other issues. http://www.joelsmurals.com/

Bill Dunlap

Bill Dunlap has shown his art in many galleries and art centers across the country. He was a Spring 2006 Fellow and Artist-in-Residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a painter, sculptor, illustrator, cartoonist living in a small town in Western Maryland called Cumberland. I moved here about six months ago. Before that, I lived in San Francisco for 15 years, and I still manage to go back there every few months.


Tell us about your recent artwork.
I’m working with cheaper, more ephemeral material these days, like butcher paper, sticks, string, and cardboard. I’m working on things large and small at the same time. The big one I’m working on right now is a 6ft tall and 25ft long mural on paper.


Have you exhibited your work?
I have, and I think I still enjoy it, but showing art can get to be a bit of a drag. There is a formula to getting shows, hanging them, opening receptions, then taking down the work that can get to be quite depressing. I’ve had over 50 group and solo shows over the past five years. I often tell myself that I should stop showing my art and just build my own private world on my property, kinda like Howard Finster did, but I guess I’m not ready yet.

Can you describe the environment and atmosphere you work in for us? Do you generally work alone or with people? Is it quiet or do you play music?
I generally work alone, and I work in various places around my house. I have a large-ish basement studio where I do most of my painting, but I will start drawing or building things with paper, string, cardboard, etc. almost anywhere. I also work in the woods outdoors making large stone and stick-pile sculptures. I prefer to work in quiet outdoors, just listening to the wind in the trees, but often the barking dogs drive me inside the house. There, I generally listen to music, most often classical.


What interests do you have other than art?
Some would include: nature, quiet, meditation, vegetarianism, veganism, animals, exercise, saxophone, flute, Shakespeare, history, poetry, literature, book collecting, listening to classical music, hiking, biking, philosophy, wood work, simplifying my life.


Have you collaborated w/ other artists in the past?
Not as much as I would like. People are very busy and it’s hard to find like-minded people near by. I enjoy collaborating with dead artists. I often take text from writers and images from old paintings and incorporate them in my own work.

Who and what are your influences?
Who: Mostly outsiders of one stripe or another. Among artists, that would be primitive peoples, developmentally disabled, children, visionaries (of the non-religious variety preferably), and the mentally ill (Artaud writing in his madness, for example).
What: Nature, quiet, animals


Looking back, how has your style changed?
I don’t know. I just keep trying to get at something, something elemental powerful complex hilarious stupid simple disturbing calming, etc. Lately, I’ve been working on (and dreaming of) much larger things.


Have you had any other careers? How have these influenced your career as an artist?
I worked for years as a graphic designer/web designer and co-founded an award-winning web development company in San Francisco called Terrascope. I did work for big clients like Travelocity, USAToday, Rand McNally, and US Bank. Luckily, the whole miserable thing imploded before I succeeded at drinking myself to death. What influence did this have? I realized I can’t hold a job or sit in long meetings. So what else is there but to become an artist?
Do you plan each of your pieces in detail beforehand or do they evolve as you create them?

A little of both, but the real driving force of creating, for me, is the totally unplanned spontaneous intuitive coming out that happens somewhere along the line. Every “art thing” I do has to have a lot of that in it.


People in your field whom you most admire:
This is a hard one to answer. I think I should stick with people I know personally, since I know their personalities and to some extent their intentions as artists. For me, the personality and the intent of the artist is intimately involved in the art work itself. Let’s face it, everyone has the potential to be creative and probably 90% of becoming an “art star” is determined by the amount of hustling done by the artist, so if you are an asshole as an artist I really won’t have much interest in your work. Some of the sincerest people I know following their own voices are Stephen Tompkins, Jake Watling, MariNaomi, Peter Kohler, Sean Samoheyl.


What are your most and least two favorite films?
Two of my favorites might be Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice (although I haven’t seen it in more than 10 years) and The Third Man, or maybe La Dolce Vita, or maybe something by Kurosawa or Bresson. I’ve not seen a Hollywood blockbuster all-star cast type of movie since I was maybe 12 years old. I suppose something like that might be my least favorite film.


What are you reading right now?
I really like reading Shakespeare. Currently, I’m reading/re-reading Richard III. I’m also reading a pretty good book about semiotics in the visual arts. It’s called Visible Signs by David Crow. I also randomly poke into these to get provocative quotes: Joseph Beuys In America, and an Antonin Artaud anthology I have. Here’s a random quote from Artaud: “I hunger less for food than for some kind of elementary consciousness.”


Favorite music:
Some of my favorite songs are by Bob Dylan, and a lot from old time Appalachian singers like Roscoe Holcomb, Dock Boggs, and Bascom Lunsford. But lately I’ve been listening mostly to 20th Century classical music, with my favorites being Lutoslawski, Pendereki, Bartok, Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern.


Favorite comic strips/ comic books:
Even though my work has a lot of cartoony looking imagery, I’m not really a big fan of traditional comics or cartoons. However, I have been influenced a lot by Little Nemo in Slumberland and Lyonel Feininger’s comics from the early 1900’s. Among contemporary comics, I think Matt Brinkman’s stuff is, at times, pure genius.

Last concert/performance attended:
The most recent performance I saw was Bob Marsh performing as Mr. Mercury at an art opening I had at Receiver Gallery in San Francisco. Bob’s a genius, too (just like Brinkman in my previous answer) except that I know Bob. Which means I can follow him around town and bug him with thousands of questions. You can hear and see more of him here: http://www.myspace.com/bobisadoctor

Bill Dunlap's Website: http://www.billdunlap.com/

Erin Candela

Erin Candela's first solo exhibition, entitled “We, Needles Under Snow” opened in Montreal on December 6th, 2006. Erin’s work explores Canadian Identity and Mythology, through a combination of drawings and etchings. Candela approaches her work through story, history and narratives relating to the development of identity.

"Canadians, being part of a fairly new country, and being made up of a number of different cultural sources, have difficulty and are resistant to the application of a generalized cultural identity. We sit in the shadow of one of the loudest and most dominant countries in the world, and we react against it's overwhelming nationalism. This makes it that much more important that Canadians; that is Quebecers, recent immigrants, prairie peoples, Metis, Maritimers, and the rest, become conscious and recognize their own place in the world, their own history, and what it is that makes them part and parcel of this complicated and beautiful piece of land that we call Canada. This is not to say that we need to subsume our particular histories, nationhood or cultural backgrounds. That we guard and keep these differences is what makes us different and complex as a country. However, as Canadians, we also need to become more informed and aware of what connects the peoples of this geographical area. We are different, but we all choose to live and be here together."

Much of what is seen in Erin Candela's drawings is typical of what has been considered particularly "Canadian" themes: natural landscape, wild animals, portraits of isolation and estrangement, and the discussion around "multiculturalism". Her drawings are more than simple depictions of the established history, however. Over the past year, Candela has researched and talked with people about their own impressions of what being "Canadian" means, and her drawings reflect the beginings of a personal take on the essentials of a Canadian mythology. How do we situate the pioneers and explorers of our past stories with the political and social problems of our present?

For more information, contact Erin Candela at candelae@gmail.com or (514) 842-0540. http://www.myspace.com/candelae [Press release reprinted with the permission of the artist.]