Carole Feuerman

From the personal mythology to greek beaches. 

By Ada Iliopoulou

She brings me back the spirit of the beach, the song ‘’Sea of Love”, the laughs in the pool parties, a crazy dance in the middle of nowhere, Goddesses of the Sun and spiritual beings of our nature, the resurrection of Venus, much more love for endless happy summers in our Hearts, a summer full of freedom and love…maybe in Mykonos. Why not? Carole Feuerman loves so much Greece and she came so many times. She is considered the world’s foremost hyperrealistic sculptor, known in particular for her sensuous themes of swimmers and dancers. She is one of the three major artists credited with starting the movement in the late 1970s.She is a unique personality, who was awestruck by ancient Greek culture. She immediately fell in love with the beaches in Mykonos. In fact she loved Mykonos so much that she wanted to create a large sculpture for the pier where boats tie up and donate it to the island, but unfortunately because of various obstacles it never happened till now. Before some days she started her European tour with exhibitions in Monaco, St. Tropez, Venice etc, she will come later in Greece and in Mykonos you can find her artworks at Rarity. 

Besides all these exhibitions and book signings for “My hyperrealist life and legacy”about her life , she launched a new business called 1MooreStudios.This is her creative advertising, marketing, and recording business that she started last year, where you can book photography, music, or podcasts. She also recording her own personal podcasts this year and they are streaming on Spotify, Apple, Google, and YouTube.

M.C.: Your sculptures are ready to speak greek…I feel their heart I can tell you. 

C.F.; For sure.Through my sculptures I convey my feelings about life and art. It is far easier for me to express my emotions through sculpture than through words. I portray the inner life of each image I create to capture the passion and sensuality of my subject. In this way, my work speaks to the viewer, evoking both an emotional and an intellectual response. 

My early hyper-realistic sculptures invite the audience to contemplate the intriguing dichotomy of realty in life and art. While my current work in metal is inspired by the idealized forms of ancient civilizations, in my trompe-l'oeil works, figures are portrayed as fragmented reality. Although only a portion of the body is presented, extensive detailing makes each figure come to life. In contrast, the classical subjects of my work in metal are realized through a technique I developed for dripping and pouring molten materials. 

Throughout my artistic career, my style has undergone many transformations, but my passion for art and my love of creating art endure.

M.C.: And as I know you love Greece too that always inspired you. When was the first time you came in Greece, Mykonos? 

C.F.: I came to Greece many times from 70s and my goal is to visit most of the islands, although there are over a thousand of them. I really can’t remember the first time I went because every time I go to a different island, it’s always for the first time. 

M.C.: Have you ever had inspiration from Mykonos?

C.F.: Mykonos is a paradise for art and art lovers.  The beauty of the place is magnificent. The food is great, and the people are warm and friendly. There are boutiques with the best goods, great art galleries, and mouthwatering restaurants. It is not just a place; it was the home of the God’s for a reason and will always be a destination. 

M.C.: Tell me about your favorite places in Mykonos 

C.F.: Mykonos is one of the most beautiful islands in Greece that is known to attract visitors from all over the world. Much famed for its sandy beaches, 300 days of sunshine, whitewashed buildings, and crystal blue waters, this beautiful island is indeed a gem of the Aegean Sea. I love Little Venice Quarter. As the name suggests, Little Venice Quarter is a section of Mykonos where the barrier between the buildings and the sea is nonexistent. It is an ideal hangout for artists who have recreated the scene in countless paintings, its charming houses, cafes, and restaurants that sit elegantly perched on the water’s edge are sure to take your breath away.

Kato Mili. Kato Mili, or the “lower windmills” in Greek, is a row of historic windmills that stand facing the sea in the town of Chora.

Paradise Beach. No trip to Mykonos is complete without a visit to Paradise Beach, one of the most popular party spots in all of Greece and home to the ...

I like Elia Beach, that is the longest beach on Mykonos. ...

Ano Mera. While it’s easy to spend an entire Mykonos vacation on the beach, an inland excursion to Ano Mera can’t be missed.

Super Paradise Beach. The aptly named Super Paradise Beach seems to have one goal: to out-party Paradise Beach.

M.C: Have you ever been in Delos? 

C.F.: I need to go there as sooner is possible. I went many times in my imagination during the isolation and I had inspiration from it. It is an important destination. The mythical birthplace of twins Apollo and Artemis, splendid Ancient Delos was a shrine turned sacred treasury and commercial center. I am an astrologer and have made sculptures of these gods and goddesses. 

M.C.: Which was your biggest inspiration for your hyperrealistart from Mykonos 

C.F: Inspired by Greece, I created my sand cast sculptures of Gods and Goddesses. Lisa Paul Streitfeld wrote about my sculptures that were inspired by Greece and she said it better than I can. ‘’In every new epoch, there comes along an artist who lives the mythology of the time.  We are, at this time, collectively experiencing the passage between the ages.  Carole A. Feuerman, a New York artist, is evoking this evolution in her life as well as her art.The key to the personal mythology is in the name. Feuerman means fireman.  As a twenty-first century alchemist, she has risked self-destruction to give birth to the new archetypal forms that reinvent beauty as an aesthetic of transformation through burning.  Even as she gained her international reputation as an artist who “paints with fire,” Feuerman nearly had her home destroyed by flames, not once but three times!

Grounding her journey in painted human figures so lifelike you would swear they are real; Feuerman went underground in 1994 to explore a new material.  Transforming solid metal into molten liquid, she set out to remake the archetypes ruling human behavior.’’

Like the alchemists of old, I set up my artworks by the cosmology, utilizing my expert knowledge of astrology to set up the timing to create my works.  People say that my creation performances are reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s gestural painting, yet they bring the fourth dimension of time into the three-dimensional forms.  To establish this intersection of time and space which is so rare in art. I  move around a mold in a fireproof suit while ladling molten metal into a multi-layered lattice work in which positive and negative space coexist in a sacred marriage of opposites.  These icons enter the world with a cosmology reflecting the heavens at the time of their creation. They are then buried in sand and excavated in a ritual summoning the 20th century unearthing of pre-patriarchal forms molded in terra cotta from ancient Mesopotamia.  This union of spirit and matter is a reflection of a pre-patriarchal Venus, the Sumerian love goddess, Inanna, self-declared Queen of Heaven & Earth.

The journey began in the 1970’s with erotic fragments of human figures that invited the viewer’s imagination to complete the picture of physical forms meeting the sensual human touch.  Then I embarked on a process of decomposing and reconstructing Greek goddesses, arriving at Psyche, the mortal who married Eros, the son of Aphrodite.  Yet in remaking the myth of the archetypal love affair between heaven and earth. That what I call Psyche is not carried up to Olympus (representing the collective unconscious) but proudly bears the wounds of the millennial journey of the female passing into the underworld in order to rediscover beauty. I gave life to this elixir through my blow torch; in providing visual form to the transformed kundalini power, she liberates the authentic face of the feminine from underground where it had been banished for thousands of years.

Having completed the passage through the Goddesses of the Four Elements ruling the alchemical process of transformation, I am currently embarked on the passage to the quintessential element, the Conjunctio, both in her experiments with metal and through monumental works of figurative sculpture.  In 2006-2007, both channels of her work meet mainstream to celebrate the hieros gamos, or sacred marriage of opposites, as the icon of the 21st century.  This merging of abstraction/realism, conscious/unconscious, masculine/feminine and positive/negative space was foretold in an earlier series of unpainted sensual companion sculptures which embody both hyperrealism and the abstraction of sexual identities merging into a unified oneness.

In our time of uncertainty, we are ripe from a new definition that I provide with life and art.  I am living a contemporary myth of the resurrection of Venus, in which the love goddess is no longer a creation of the patriarchy formed from the male body, but a union of heaven and earth.  I have pursued this personal mythology of transformation by giving shape to the universal flame of Prometheus, who brought fire to humankind.  Indeed, this transformer delivers this gift through the supreme development of a highly personal art form infused with universal spirit.

M.C.: If Mykonos was an artwork of yours, what could it be? 

C.F.: If Mykonos was an artwork, she would be a figurative bronze goddess, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water

M.C: Do you have idols? 

C.F.: I have artists I admire, people I admire, and people who believed in me that Helped me get where I am today.

I am grateful to my husband Ronald Cohen, and my three children, Lauren, Sari, and Craig. I also want to acknowledge the people that helped me get where I am today. My grandparents Anna and Ma Ackerman who raised me and encouraged me. They led by example and taught me to follow my dreams. There is also John T. Spike, who always believed in me, edited my latest book, “50 Years of Looking Good,” and wrote countless essays, and arranged important exhibitions. To the late Malcolm Forbes, who was my first collector. To the late Ann Jaffe, who was my first gallery, to Francois Chabanian of BelAir Fine Art, to my attorney Caryn B. Keppler, to my staff that I call the A-Team, and to my family and friends who have always supported me. 

M.C.: Tell us more for the book “My hyperrealist life and legacy”

C.F. :I’ve written an intimate story of my life and how I accomplished my goals to became one of the most sought-after artists despite being told by my teachers, my family, and the galleries I first approached, that I would not succeed. This book is also dedicated to those trying to follow their dreams, to survive and achieve, and to those who have beat the odds through hard work, perseverance, and independent. 

Whether it be finding new work, financial uncertainty, or contemplating failure, fear has a special place in our emotional life. By compulsion, our minds are designed to let fear in. Without it, we’d never survive. But how to keep suspicion away from restricting our ability to fulfill our ambitions? 

Conquering fear is about wisdom, self-awareness, and understanding our inner strengths – often the odds in life and following your dreams to live a satisfying life. 

I am doing book signings all over the world. The first one was at Chase Contemporary where I just premiered my latest sculpture “Monumental Survival of Serena” resting on a candy apple blue tube.

M.C..: A motto that shows everything for you

C.F.: “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”

“MONUMENTAL BROOKE WITH BEACHBALL”