FRESH Art at Toast: Artist Says Graphic Work is in Her DNA

Some people just have art in their DNA. For Angela Newman, a self-taught artist from Ronkonkoma, her career in art began when she was a little kid visiting her grandfather’s studio.

“He drew diagrams for math textbooks,” she said. “And he’d draw coloring pages for me with a Sharpie.”

As Newman hung pieces for the latest in the ongoing monthly art series at exhibited by FRESH Art Collective, she recalled getting art supplies every Christmas and on her birthday growing up. As long as she can remember she’s been an artist.

Now 22-years-old, Newman has already rebelled from the norm, choosing to drop out of the art program at Suffolk County Community College to focus on making art on her own terms.

She’s a prolific producer, having made over 70 pieces of art in August in preparation for her show at Toast this month.

“Art is more of an endurance thing to me than an emotional thing,” Newman said.

She wanted to put as much new work in the exhibit as possible, pieces that no one has seen before. She finds that many artists post their work on the Internet and Facebook and when you go to a show you see all the same pieces hanging on the wall.

“That’s not how I want it to be,” she said.

Her designs are done in mixed media, combining, paint, pencil, ink, markers and colored pencil on paper, wood and canvas. Taking her grandfather’s influence, a lot of her work is very intricate and graphic, some of it drawn with Sharpie markers.

She says that many of the images she creates just simmer up from her subconscious without putting into words yet what they mean. Over time, she’ll look back and discover what the art is trying to say.

“I’m just along for the ride,” said Newman.

You can see Angela Newman’s artwork at Toast Coffeehouse through the end of September.

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