Jun 22 2008
SORA instructor Steve Ohlrich will be conducting several drawing classes and painting workshops in July and August. More details are here. Details on Steve’s current exhibitions can be found here.
Jun 10 2008
Below is an interview with SORA instructor and professional artist, Mike Chelich. Mike has taught at SORA since its founding in 1992. Mike and SORA director, Bruno Surdo, both studied at Atelier Lack in Minneapolis in the early 80s. In addition to teaching at SORA, Mike has an active commissioned art and portrait painting practice. Mike discusses his art educational background at Chicago’s American Academy of Art and Atelier Lack in Minneapolis, his teaching experience at SORA and his reflections about his own work. –Ben Rathbone
Click here for Mike’s bio
Click here for Mike’s personal website
BR: Can you tell me about your background. How and when did you decide you wanted to be an artist?
Mike: Since I was very young, probably four or five years old, I had been doing art. I had an interest in all sorts of things as most boys do, dinosaurs, superheros and comic books. I had an interest in anatomy even as a little kid and was putting blood vessels on dinosaurs. I knew that I wanted to be an artist early, especially a comic book artist. In adition, I also loved wildlife and the natural world. When I got into high school, I saw the work of a wildlife artist named Charles Frace. After I saw his work, I knew I wanted to be serious about becoming a wildlife artist. That was in early high school. So that was the formation of my interests in art.
BR: When did you graduate high school and what did you do after that?
Mike: I graduated from high school in 1982. Leading up to that time, I was a little aimless. I put off even applying to college so lets just say I was very fortunate in the way things happened. I tried for a scholarship contest to the American Academy of Art in Chicago where you had to draw for 6 hours, and then submit your work. I did that and won a tuition scholarship. That pretty much decided it. I was interested in the American Academy, anyway, so that sealed the deal.
BR: What was the scholarship contest like?
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May 11 2008
Painting the Figure with Bruno Surdo
Don’t miss this rare opportunity!
3 day course, June 24, 26, 28, Tues/Thurs/Fri
8 am to 1 pm
$450
Bruno Surdo will demonstrate and assist students in his process of painting the human figure. His many years of experience has brought him to work in a method that combines technique from the Venetian and Flemish styles of painting.
This course will focus on the technical aspects of painting the human figure working through the following steps: monochromatic underpainting, painting flesh tones and impasto/thick layers of paint
Materials list will be given at time of registration
May 06 2008
SORA Director Bruno Surdo will give a guided tour and talk about the work in his current show, ‘Obscurities’ at the Ann Nathan Gallery on Friday, May 9 2008, at 12:30 p.m. This event is open to the public.
The Ann Nathan Gallery is located at 218 W. Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60610.
Apr 30 2008
The schedule of classes and workshops at SORA for the summer of 2008 has been posted here. These classes and workshops are open to the general public.
Apr 10 2008
SORA director Bruno Surdo will be having a show titled “Obscurities” at the Ann Nathan Gallery in Chicago. The show opens on April 18 and runs through May 31, 2008. There will be an opening reception on April 18 from 5 to 8 p.m.
The Ann Nathan Gallery is located at 218 W. Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60610.
Apr 07 2008
This is the final part of a three part interview conducted with Bruno Surdo, Director of the School of Representational Art, in January of 2008. For Part one, click here. For Part two, click here.
This part covers Bruno’s professional achievements and favorite works, the challenges of being a professional artist, artistic inspiration, painting in the digital age, appreciating realism, changes in the reception of realism over the last decades, and the idea of meaning in art.
BR: Moving to your own work as an artist, which professional achievements are you most proud of?
Bruno: I would say that I’ve had three. My first was my first one-man show at the Chicago Cultural Center in the early 90’s. It was the first major public display of my work. I had five hundred people attend the opening. It was a huge success on many levels. I did not sell anything, but I had huge press. People knew who I was after that show. It was a great event. It really gave me this jolt that I needed at the time, and I really planned for it. It was a great experience. The second would be my first one man show at Ann Nathan, about five or six years ago. It was another strong showing, and my introduction into the art world. I had a great reception, I sold most of the paintings and we had a great catalog made. It was again, my name in the art community, at least in Chicago. That was an accomplishment. I’ve had many shows since, but that first one really seemed to give me the excitement that I was on to something that I had planned for. Again, I just felt it was a good show. I really put a lot into it. Third, was the achievement of my 911 painting, which was a huge undertaking. It was 19 feet by 45 feet. I put forth this difficult challenge, and I created as best a piece I could do at the time. I gave it everything I can. When I look back I do have some regrets about doing it, but I do think it was a high achievement of my career. The part that was difficult was the reception that I thought I would get, and the whole acceptance of the piece. But in terms of my accomplishments as an artist, I could not have done more or better than I did at the time. So it was a huge feat on many levels, not only the scale, but the subject matter, technical applications, arrangement of the figures, and the whole emotional aspect of the piece, and how it felt to me and acted as a vehicle of self expression at a difficult time.
Mar 31 2008
This is the second of a three part interview with the director of the School of Representational Art, Bruno Surdo. Click here for Part One. In Part Two, we discuss the founding of SORA, good times, tough times, SORA’s relation to other means of artistic training, SORA’s unique composition program, and alumni.
BR: When you got back to Chicago, from Italy, why and when did you decide to start SORA?
Bruno: Well, when I came back to Chicago, I started teaching privately. I was teaching all over the city. I was doing workshops. I hooked up with a couple art studios. I was having classes and was generating a large following. At some point I was confronted by several students, namely Karen Larson-Turner, and they wanted to study with me, and understood the tradition I came from. They were anxious to learn this tradition. So at that point I decided instead of just having these people take courses with me here and there I would offer a little studio school. I wanted to start it small and offer the same kind of structure that I was taught. Even though I was doing these workshops and making some pretty good money and getting a good reputation, I always felt I could not give the thoroughness to the student that they needed to improve. When you run a business like that, you know people can only commit that amount of time anyway. I was frustrated as a teacher because I could get a student to a certain point and then I couldn’t get them any further. So I knew that it was a risk opening up the school, because there is no guarantee that I could find students that wanted to study in this tradition. But when I opened it I had 9 students and I brought on 2 other teachers, Mike Chelich and Chris Cismesia. We all did this tag-team teaching. I did the most teaching at that time, but Mike and Chris would come in when I could not make it. It was my school and I decided to at least give these students the opportunity to study in the tradition that I was taught. It was a dramatic time.
Mar 26 2008
SORA graduate and instructor Steve Ohlrich will appear in a group show at the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, NY May 30-June 24, 2008. There will be an opening reception on June 5, from 6-8 pm.
Mar 23 2008
Below is the first of a three part interview conducted with Bruno Surdo, director of the School of Representational Art, in January of this year. We covered Bruno’s background, his experiences at Chicago’s American Academy of Art, studying under Fred Berger, studying at Atelier Lack, and the founding and history of SORA. The purpose of posting the interview is to provide a window into SORA’s 16 year history, what the school is like, and contemporary realism. Enjoy. –Ben Rathbone
BR: Tell us about your background. How did you know you wanted to become and artist?
Bruno: Like so many children, I had a fascination with comic books. I liked religious art because I was brought up in a religious environment. So I liked the fact that pictures were used to tell stories and I gravitated towards that early on. I also lived in an Italian American family that always stressed great artists of the past. So if you were doing something, they would say “you accomplished that like a Michelangelo or a Leonardo,” so these were names I was familiar with very early on. I was fortunate to travel to Europe and see some great art as a youngster. I was the first artist of my family, and it was definitely an interest I had, probably when I was 8 or 9 years old.
