Check out Catherine Cella Neapolitan’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Catherine Cella Neapolitan.

Catherine, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
My journey begins with a love of art – thanks to the inspiring Jean Morman Unsworth at Mother McAuley High School – yet thinking I could never be an artist. The path then moves to studying philosophy and art history, eventually taking up photography as a new mom on Chicago’s North Side. I continued developing my skills and eye after we moved to Tennessee, then really started to blossom on a momentous trip to France.

Visiting Monet’s gardens in Giverny – on a lovely May day with only other artists there – was my vision of heaven. The images captured that day, as well as others throughout the country, revealed that I had changed. That was 1998, the Year of Believing I Was an Artist.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Likely due to Monet’s – and O’Keeffe’s – influence, flowers have always been a favored subject. Trees also resonate with me, while the sea brings out my inner mermaid. Nature is a never-ending wellspring. I’m frequently conscious of the words ‘shoot’ and ‘capture’ in photography, for getting good shots can feel like a hunt. It’s an interaction where you, your subject, time, place – and all the variables within these elements – come together. Patience here is the proverbial virtue; and with a little luck, magic strikes.

Culture also intrigues me – especially in windows with their reflections literal and metaphorical – and also in travel, as I search for images emblematic, antithetic, and enigmatic. Honoring what Matisse calls photography’s “objective charm,” I prefer to post process my images sparingly and only in service of meaning. Two recent developments in my work are titling images with haiku I’ve written and creating digital double exposures.

If there is one thread that runs throughout art history it is beauty, which we may all have a notion of and yet find difficult to define. Attraction works best for me. The more one studies or practices art, the more one is attracted to beauty in the Keatsian sense of “Truth is beauty, beauty truth.” So, attraction can be to a Bosch painting – even with its often-ugly imagery – because of the truth it contains.

My aesthetic – the attraction I appreciate and aspire to – is beauty in the sense of having both meaning and mystery. I hope people see in my work something that intrigues, makes them want to look longer or deeper. I want viewers to note the title and think about its relation to the image. Like most artists, I express a range of ideas and emotions in my work – pain, joy, humor, fear, puzzlement, wonder, excitement, loss, love, etc. – and am pleased when viewers experience these and more.

The sterotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
Focus can be a struggle for any artist! One approach is needing, accepting, and working with less. Another is treating your time – and energy – as the precious commodities they are. Recognize that if you truly want to be an artist, there is only one way. BE ONE. Do the work. If you carve out the time and space to create – and put your heart into it – the authenticity will show. These measures can be tough – working in your free time, missing social occasions – but nothing worthwhile comes without sacrifice.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
They can check the Photo Albums on my Facebook page @CellaNeapolitanArt. Images there can be purchased, as I do my own archival printing and matting. I’ve retired from doing juried exhibits but still participate in select group shows. Coming up is one on the theme of Magical Realism with three other women artists. I also have a shop in my hometown of Cookeville, TN.

Contact Info:

• Address: Cella Neapolitan Art
  The Market on the Square
  6 North Jefferson
  Cookeville, TN 38501
• Email: cella1@charter.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cellaneapolitan/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cella-Neapolitan-Art-142231025839635/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cellaNeapolitan

Image Credit:
First Image Credit : Jerry Neapolitan

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