Please visit my blog for updates on the newest things I am working on, inspiration and updates at www.amysteinberg.blogspot.com

Charming Sam

Amy Steinberg has expanded her art craftsman-ship from textile influenced visual arts to the world of jewelry.  You can view her full line of current necklaces, earrings and bracelets plus jewelry for little girls at www.charmingsam.com.

Painting is a way for me to capture the essence of places that captivate me.  Whether it be ancient India or modern day Paris, I am drawn to the unfamiliar and desire, through my work, to harness the feelings of chaos, elation, and wonder one experiences upon arriving in a new land.  I am interested in both the power of a new environment’s immediate impact and the lasting impressions one retains after traveling to a far away place.

For me, adjustment to an unfamiliar place is like focusing a camera.  In the beginning, one has a hazy but vivid sense of the surroundings, the colors and shapes already somewhat recognizable.  With time, the features come into sharper focus as we develop our own tangible experience of a country, city, or street corner.  Later, when we are away, our focus reverts to something like our initial understanding; our recollections are vague, but now punctuated by specific details.  I try to imbue my work with the mood evoked by these contrasts, highlighting clear details but leaving other parts vague and mysterious.  Though elements of my paintings may be precise and recognizable, my works are grounded in the desire to convey atmosphere and feeling.  My paintings are my attempt to capture the hazy journey we take in an effort to understand a place or to reconstruct our experience of it.