Q&A [Question and Artist]: Zara Monet Feeney

Meet Zara. We are so excited to host Thoughts of Phthalo Blue, winner of the Solo Show award for our annual Made in California exhibition. She was gracious enough to answer a few questions about her process for us to share with everyone. Learn more about Zara Monet!

Zara with Pipe Master

[Brea Art Gallery]: How did you become interested in this type of large scale work?

[Zara Monet Feeney]: I started making this large scale work during undergrad. I like that it allows the viewer to sort of dematerialize or walk into the space of the scene. I also like that a large scale can create more immediate drama when you view it. It becomes something that is hard to ignore.

Backdrop

[Brea Art Gallery]: You used the term “reflective looking” in your artist statement. What does that mean to you?

[Zara Monet Feeney]: Reflective looking to me means that when viewing, you are self aware. Meaning that even though you know that a painting is a illusion or stand in of reality, you are able to be seduced into viewing it regardless. I hope to make the work so alluring that the viewer consciously has a “suspension of disbelief” in order to fully engage in the painting. I teeter on the edge of recognizable and abstracted imagery. There can be a section of the painting that looks like a window into another world and then an adjacent section that highlights the mere materiality of pigment.

[Brea Art Gallery]: Instagram: the best friend or worst enemy of artists?

[Zara Monet Feeney]: I think Instagram can be really beneficial for the marketing side of artwork. I personally, however, avoid it when I can as it drains my genuine creativity.

[Brea Art Gallery]: What contemporary artists are you into?

[Zara Monet Feeney]: I really enjoy Julie Mehretu and James Turrell. Mehretu has an incredible handling of her materials and a play of composition. Turrell’s light installations are truly out of this world.

[Brea Art Gallery]: Who in your life encourages you to create?

[Zara Monet Feeney]: My family and friends are always encouraging me to keep making work. They are very important to me.

[Brea Art Gallery]: What’s next and were else can we see your work?

[Zara Monet Feeney]: In addition to this show, I also have a current solo show at the Carnegie Museum Studio Gallery, Oxnard that runs until June 16. After that I will be in a group show at Mash Gallery August 17 and then another solo show September 7 at Los Angeles Artcore Gallery.

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Zara Monet Feeney’s artwork is published in Huffington Post, Manifest, Juxtapoz, Beautiful Bizarre, Art in America and International Painting Annual. She has been awarded several solo shows and international residencies and has placed first in numerous juried exhibitions. She has a B.A. from UCLA and an MFA from LCAD. She currently works as a college professor. She was raised in an eccentric art family in Thousand Oaks, California.

See more of Zara’s work here.

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Thanks so much to Zara Monet Feeney for her time to answer these questions and letting us get to know her better! Be sure to check out her latest work on display at Brea Gallery’s Made in California, now through June 28th, 2019.