Age: 26
Profession: Coastal Conservation League administrative assistant
Passions: “Art, the environment, and music”
Find Angela: “Starving Artists” at Kulture Klash and angelachvarak.com
Local artist Angela Chvarak has given plein-air painting a decidedly different take. Rather than applying paint to canvas in the open air, this Clemson art grad can be found at concerts, “live painting” alongside bands like Jupiter’s Garden and Dangermuffin. Last July, the 26-year-old administrative assistant by day perched with palette and canvas beside fusion-punk jazz trio Morimoto at Eye Level Art, her brushstrokes mimicking the band’s jazzy explorations and resulting in a collage of paint and thrift-store scraps titled Lap It Up. “There’s pressure to work quickly,” she says, “because I want the audience to see the painting evolve during the show.”
Another work, Melodic Conductivity, hangs at the Pour House on James Island. “Someone told me that it looked like a fireworks explosion, so I turned it upside down and started thinking about a conductor’s arms moving back and forth,” she says. Whether she’s painting in sync with a band or alone in her home studio, music is a constant influence. “I concentrate on the rhythms and instruments, but I’m not necessarily interpreting them,” she says.
In addition to her rhythmically inspired “performance art,” Chvarak creates a variety of art, including sculpture. Recently, her works have been popping up around town in locales ranging from the “FR3SH, 12-Hour Lock-In” show in September to the windows of the old Millennium Music at King and Calhoun streets. Look for Chvarak during her upcoming project, the FR3SH “Starving Artists” exhibition/fast at this month’s hipster arts extravaganza Kulture Klash 5 on November 6 and 7.
