Esther Rogoway

When her family returned to the United States, and as her own artistic talents developed, she continued her studies, including classes at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. For a number of years Rogoway worked as a commercial artist; she married and raised a family. Now that her children are grown, she is able to return focus to her painting and, once more, to express her feelings on canvas.

Rogoway's fine art embodies a richness and depth of color, swirls of color and form that present figures, primarily those of horses and people, that are easily recognizable, yet which by the nature of their composition, speak more of an inner world of feeling and imagination than to the outer world of reality. There is a mystical quality to each that harkens back to the inspirational locales of Rogoway's youth, locales that, by their very nature taught her artistic spirit to look inward and interpret one's own reality. It is this very process that Rogoway invites viewers of her work to engage in.

Her dream-like paintings invite viewers to delve into each scene, into the figures and the abstraction, to whatever degree they wish. In her works everything is somewhat familiar, yet ebbs and flows with a rhythm of its own. Each painting tells a story, but the actual interpretation is in the eye of the beholder. Rogoway's intent is to draw us deep into our own subconscious world of feeling when we view her creations.

Esther Rogoway received Best of Show in Painting at the 2012 Sedona [AZ] Arts Festival and the 2012 Peoples Choice Award from the Tubac Center of the Arts in Tubac, Arizona.

Please contact the gallery to see more from this artist.

Bonnie Burkee

ON HOW I BECAME AN ARTIST:

Early on in grade school years I recall watching my father copy advertisements drawn by artists to sell products in magazines and newspapers such as fashions, automobiles and perfumes. Photography had not yet entered the scene - all copy was artistic renderings. So I did what my father did - I copied ads - finding this path of drawing both fun and easy. Moreover, in grade school my class was given a project of writing a letter to a "celebrity" interesting enough to arouse a response. I chose Eddie Cantor, famous for comedy, but with my letter I enclosed my pencil portrait of him done from a magazine photograph. He wrote a lovely thank you note. I was the only one who received a response. That did make me feel my advancing drawing skill was quite special and spurred me to continue my practicing. Actually, it wasn't the best of times - the depression - ergo any diversion was welcome.

Later, in high school, I was asked to do a research project and, for whatever reason, I chose to explore "Cubism" and the "Nude Descending the Staircase" by Marcel Duchamp. That brought me to the Art Institute of Chicago which definitely arouse my appetite for art, and indeed made me believe there was something out there far better than making a living as a secretary, something beyond anything I had ever dreamed.

When I graduated from high school I briefly took a job with a major bank, but trusting my need to pursue art I knew it was time for an important decision. I asked the friend who had helped me with my "Cubism" project if there was a possibility for me to attend the school of the Art Institute where she had studied. She thought it should not be a problem. I applied, was accepted, and that was the real beginning of my long history of being an artist.

For Brubaker being an artist is as much a life as a profession. His studio is in his home and there is always something going on. The ideas keep coming. Each character is begun by the artist and, at some point, takes over to guide its own completion. Brubaker notes that each piece "is historically and culturally influenced, but not historically or culturally correct." It is the spirit of the West that is so thoroughly captured.

And, the "Bob Dog" quoted above … that's the artist; it's an apt nickname given Brubaker ages ago.

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