Liala Amin

The 2020-2021 artist-in-residence season is supported by a grant from the Kohler Foundation, Inc

Spring 2021 Sheboygan North High Artist-in-Residence

EXIT INTERVIEW

Exit interview with Milwaukee-based artist Liala Amin. Facilitated by art department chair, Frank Juarez

On May 27, 2021, the Sheboygan North High Art Department concluded its Spring 2021 virtual artist-in-residency program with Milwaukee-based artist Liala Amin. Part of our conclusion is to facilitate an exit interview with our artists to hear how about their experience, studio practice, and ways to improve the artist-in-residency program. This year was difficult, however, it sparked new ideas to make our program more accessible to local, regional, and national artists.

We are happy to announce Liala Amin’s virtual art exhibition titled, “PSYCHE: Surreal Intuitions”, which features 20 new works on paper. This exhibition will run through August 31, 2021. To view the exhibition visit nhsartdept.com.

Psyche

psy·che

/ˈsīkē/

“the human soul, mind, or spirit.”

Who am I?

The answer to that question is found through introspection. Self-discovery arrives in soul-searching.

The spirit moves in seasons, constantly forming and changing. To find meaning I turn to what my body and mind speak and translate dreams and emotions into free flowing images. This is intuitive making, letting the unconscious speak.

Human experience is vivid and transformation endless.

The 2020-2021 Sheboygan North High Artist-in-residency and virtual artist lecture series is supported by a grant from The Kohler Foundation, Inc.
This interview was recorded on February 10, 2021

At its core, my art is a visual journal. A therapeutic documentation of emotion, growth, and discovery. I rely on intuition as I allow lines to flow and form organic, and sometimes chaotic, patterns. But within chaos there is a union of consciousness and the unknown, creativity and transformation. My art is a feminine view inspired by a combination of myth, history, and personal experiences. I want to subvert singular expectations of womanhood and present femininity as multifaceted and fully autonomous. Multiple materials allow me to express different ideas and I enjoy incorporating different media in each artwork. I encourage the viewer to look closer and take in the details, reflecting lights, and shifting colors. Life changes depending on our view: we become illuminated differently by every new perspective.

Liala Amin is a multidisciplinary artist exploring the facets of femininity through themes of spirituality, mythology, and personal identity. While painting is her preferred medium, her work includes mixed media paintings, drawings, and textiles. She flows between mediums to explore the intuitive nature of art making. Amin considers her art a visual journal and an outlet to manifest introspection, storytelling, and process.
Amin graduated from the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2014 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Fibers. Her work has been exhibited within Midwest group exhibitions and has received features in several publications. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Var West Gallery in Milwaukee.

Monthly Updates

May 2021

This month conclude Liala Amin’s artist-in-residency. To celebrate her contribution and artistic accomplishment, a virtual art exhibition was designed to showcase her new body of work along with some studio shots from her Milwaukee studio in Walker’s Point.

April 2021

This month artist Liala Amin shares a few of her finished paintings and her process of protecting them for years to come.

March 2021

Week one of my residency began with a beautiful sunny day. Spring time just around the corner.

Part of the artistic practice is research. The “what” and “why” of making art.

I spent Tuesday morning chatting over chai with Milwaukee artist Bela Suresh Roongta about her solo show at Var West Gallery. It was both insightful and inspiring to share our ideas about our art making process and how the personal inner-self can take the center stage in art. I took a few things to heart after.

Trust the intuitive process. While we are our own worst critic, we can also be our biggest supporter. Do what feels right.
Art is personal. As artists we display pieces of ourselves in our creations.
Art is a beautiful way to visualize our deepest feelings.

For my work this week, and in the coming future, I am using my dreams as inspiration. What could be more intuitive and personal than what we dream?

In honor of Women’s History Month, I will also be researching women artists of the surrealist movement and how they translated their inner self through a feminine point of view.

I’ve taken on the challenge of creating a body of work consisting of 45 pieces taking direct inspiration from dreams. The goal is to expand my creative practice by maintaining daily art making and allowing creativity to flow without boundaries.

In the deep dive into surrealism, I have integrated the practice of surrealist automatism into my making;

“automatism refers to creating art without conscious thought, accessing material from the unconscious mind as part of the creative process.”

Each piece starts off as a graphite drawing (or a doodle). I like to spend 10 continuous minutes drawing whatever comes to mind. No thinking, just making. Then I move onto watercolor and inks. I like the loose nature of watercolors and how they move across the paper. For me it adds to the atmosphere that dreaming creates, dissipations and concentrations of images and color.

The final step is usually the most fun for me and that’s adding the patterns, or as I like to call it “organized chaos”.

I’m already starting to see how each piece changes from the previous one and I am excited to further develop this series.

Studio Visit with Liala Amin

On Saturday, March 20th Mr. Juarez took a drive to Walker’s Point in Milwaukee to see what artist Liala Amin was up to in her studio. Liala is our Spring semester artist-in-residence working virtually with our staff & students.

Amin graduated from the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2014 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Fibers. Her work has been exhibited within Midwest group exhibitions and has received features in several publications. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Var West Gallery in Milwaukee.

About the Sheboygan North High Artist-in-Residence Program

The Sheboygan North High Art Department created the NHS Artist in Residency Program (NHS AiR)in the fall of 2014. This program is designed to expose, educate and engage the North High community to local and regional artists each semester during the current academic school year. Our artist in residence works with our staff and students for one semester (18 weeks). The AiR program is currently in its fourth year.

The goals of the NHS Artist-in-Residence (NHS AiR) Program are: