Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is very pleased to announce that Arlene Buster has been selected as one of the four winning artists of the gallery’s recent 20th “Solo Art Series” Art Competition. Arlene will now have a month-long solo art exhibition and she will be featured on the gallery’s front page, in the Gallery’s YouTube Channel, as well as in the “Solo Art Series” archive.
Arlene Buster is an award-winning artist based in California, USA. She will now be promoted by the gallery with an extensive public relations campaign.
For this solo exhibition, the Gallery will distribute, promote and circulate press releases to over 550+ major News Outlets, including Premium FOX, CBS, and NBC Affiliated Sites, with guaranteed inclusion on Google News & Bing News. The Gallery will also provide social media distribution through LST gallery’s broad social media network.
In addition, as part of her award package, Arlene will now be featured as a Light Space & Time – Artwork Archive promoted artist. Her art will also be featured on the gallery’s YouTube Channel and with an event postcard.
The “Solo Art Series” is a series of monthly solo art exhibitions for established artists who have a body of work to present to the public. Artist participants were asked to submit the following 3 components for the “Solo Art Series” competition: 1. Their art. 2. Their artist biography. 3. Their artist statement. These elements were evaluated and judged, which resulted in the selection of the artists who will be featured in individual month-long solo art exhibitions. This was the 20th “Solo Art Series” Art Competition that the gallery has conducted.
Below are Arlene’s Artist Biography, her Artist Statement, along with 12 artworks. We hope that you will take the time to read Arlene’s information and to take a look at her "Absence of Privacy" series of paintings.
Artist Biography
As far as she can remember, Arlene Buster’s devotion to painting emerged at a very young age. As told by her parents and her grandmother, whenever they would check up on her, they would find her painting or drawing by herself, in the quiet corners of her home. Her devotion to art was further nourished when her mother took her to inquire about her very first private art class. When she graduated from high school, she pursued her art at Montclair State University, earning a bachelor's degree in painting and drawing before attending the Academy of Art University. However, her journey was interrupted as she battled personal struggles with illness that made it impossible for her to pursue her art and even accomplish everyday tasks. Throughout those painful struggles, she thought a lot about the artist Frida Kahlo and the struggles she endured.
When Arlene began walking and using her hands again, it was a significant crossroad in her life. At the present time, in spite of some considerable impairments and pain she still experiences, she is much better. Painting for Arlene is personal, especially now, for the reason that it permits her to escape the painful obstacles in life and imparts her with purpose. The hours become minutes while she narrates her stories with her brushes filled with paint.
Artist Statement
In the words of Marshall McLuhan, “Technology is just not a happenstance and not just something that got there when nobody was noticing and so, we are responsible for our technologies and the effects of our technologies, as we are responsible for tidying up our grammar.”
I have created my series Absence of Privacy because I believe everyone has a right to privacy. Likewise, I believe that most unscripted moments in life, should remain unscripted and free from a world of webcams. To illustrate the ways in which webcams have invaded our lives, I have painted twelve paintings with oil on canvas. I paint the figure in everyday settings as they are being watched through a surveillance camera or webcam.
My interest in this topic began when I created a still-life oil painting of a webcam for my Contemporary Painting class in 2011. It felt eerie and overpowering. It was agitating to see a webcam up-close staring at me. For this reason, I began reflecting on the multitude of cameras that were gawking at me throughout the day. Prior to this, I had never given this much attention. As I read articles about privacy abuses, I felt compelled to communicate these issues through painting.
To learn more about his series and Arlene’s inspiration and process to create it, please visit her website.
