Angelica Sotiriou

[Originally published here.]

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelica (Sotiriou-Rausch).

Hi Angelica (Sotiriou-Rausch), we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am an artist and a “creative”. I have known no other voice as far back as I can remember. I have been a professional studio artist for 45 years and I have dedicated my life focus on the Arts. I had a wonderful visual arts education and incredible mentors along the way. I received my Masters of Arts and my Masters of Fine Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles during the 1970’s (studying with Lee Mullican, Sam Amato, Laddie John Dill, Robert Heineken and all of the women artists that have come before me.) It was a seminal decade in the Arts and was a renaissance of creativity. It was a fascinating era that shaped my arts sensibilities as a woman finding voice through her art. I have been a Teaching-Artist for 46 years. I have been committed to sharing and mentoring the incredible process of creating artworks, seeing through the artist-lens and art-as-career to students from University, Museum Education programs, Outreach programs, At-risk programming and public and private elementary level throughout Los Angeles County.

I am very grateful that I had a career in Arts Education that supplemented my commitment to being a dedicated studio artist. I have created an extensive body of work that has been exhibited over the last four decades in museums, colleges, galleries, places of worship and in private and public venues internationally and nationally. angelicasotiriou.com

My keen sense of color, composition and conceptual narratives in my works has holistically grown from the depths of my childhood upbringing and embedded experiences. I grew up working the acres of flower fields of our wholesale-flower family business. We leased local virgin-soil-fields in the South Bay where we raised our crops of hybrid King Asters. In the flower fields, the rhythm of seasons was liturgical from incarnation to resurrection. To be immersed in the changing cycles of the crops was a daily transfiguring. Each flower was understood as God’s Energies and early on formed my definitive aesthetics of Beauty and my embedded sense of God’s presence.

Intense Color, Awe and Wonder, Mystery and Unseen, Contemplative, Majestic, brilliant Light have been the journey of each deliberate brushstroke on my canvases. My process of creating my works is reflective of the ancient Byzantine iconography process. The works start out with the darkest color and continue with the sequenced fifteen layers of pigment to finish with the lightest color, often white. My works deal with seeking Light. I use interference powders in my transparent and translucent layers to refract light so that the viewer is in a constant relationship with my works. I often see the patrons who are viewing my works in the gallery, moving from left to right to standing close and then stepping back to view my works. When viewing my works the status of the many transparent layers of color change with the natural daylight or overhead gallery lights. Images, shapes and layers of hidden colors are revealed as the perspective and the lighting change. My works are large. The average size is six feet by four feet and often by design, are larger. The process of working in a larger format is often humbling and leaves me relinquishing control and sensing my own smallness. The works become portals, a stepping-into the works themselves. The works are a choreography between the artist’s hand and the artist’s heart. Creating my works becomes for me an intimate relationship.

“I don’t know how
But suddenly there is no darkness left at all.
The sun has poured itself inside me
From a thousand wounds.”
– Nikoforos Vretakos

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Wow, now that is a great reflective question. The challenges and lessons are many. I was raised in a first-generation Greek immigrant home. It was a loving home, but roles were defined and written in stone. Women were to be quiet, relinquish power to the patriarch, serve others, have their betrothed chosen and marry and have children and stay home. My wonderful father passed away when I was just barely a teenager…And with his passing went some of the definitive norms of my culture. I was the youngest child to older parents. There was pain and there was freedom, in that order. I was a bit of pistol and would push against my cultural norms. As years went by, my family accepted that I wanted to be an artist. I married my best friend and advocate, had two beautiful sons and continued making and teaching art. It was not easy. No not at all. I did my best wearing all the hats expected of women…and hopefully, I will be forgiven where I may have neglected going to my son’s Little League Game that Saturday when I was teaching at LACMA. The art world then and still is a “good-ol’-boy club”…it is not an easy path to take. Our culture says it supports the artist but often times the product becomes a commodity of exchange. The artist, all the while desires more than anything to sit in silence making beauty in their studios. The role of choosing to be an artist is always a fragile balance. Would I take this path as an artist again? I would have it no other way.

My advice to young artists has always been…Constantly learn about your craft, whether it be the history, the tools and or the available new materials and medias. ALWAYS show up and do the work…NEVER stop making your art, whether it be in the garage after tucking in your children to bed, in a sketchbook between night shifts, early in the morning before the rest of the world wakes up and distracts your creative process with their unrelenting chatter. Know your personal truth. Do your work exceeding well. Be consistent with your creative vision. I recently was given notice to vacate my beautiful loft studio of 20 years. I had a space that many envied. But a day did not go by that I was not grateful, sincerely grateful. I was a part of an arts community that accepted my determined focus to work in silence and alone. But…I am being asked to begin again…to set up my studio in a smaller space and reestablish a new or not arts community five decades later. You asked, has it been smooth? The rhythm and the continuum of time creating my art was the zone, the part that was easy and a part of my life as necessary as much as breathing is. You CANNOT choose to NOT be an artist. It is who you are. It defines you and every life choice you make.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Without Art this world would not exist. Art DOES save and heal in a multitude of ways. We would not know who we are, where we came from, where we are going or our sense of place if not for the arts. I have a favorite quote by Katherine Anne Porter. It has been on my wall for the past 50 years to remind me of why I do what I do. “The arts do live continuously, and they live literally by faith; their names and their shapes and their uses and their basic meanings survive unchanged in all that matters through times of interruption, diminishment, neglect; they outlive governments and creeds and the societies, even the very civilization that produced them. They cannot be destroyed altogether because they represent the substance of faith and the only reality. They are what we find again when the ruins are cleared away.” Read that again…

I have no greater joy than when my work hangs in the home, the church, the spa, the educational institution, the retreat center. I love to look at the contemplative gaze of the new owners of my works. It is a savored moment. As they stand looking at my work, I feel connected to them…it is an overwhelming feeling of being silently “seen” and soulfully understood.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
What makes me happy? I suppose it is the ability to have a grateful heart in all things. I find great joy in being amid beauty whether it be in the canopy of the Redwoods, a beautiful work of art, the visceral sound of listening to a cello, sharing a meal with others, serving others with no intended outcome, coming home, knowing my loved ones are happy, being authentically “seen” and valued for who I am, to be surrounded in Sacred Quietude, to give love and to be loved, to truly forgive those who have wounded me and to have a vision of an intended painting to create and have it teach me more than anticipated in its completion.

Happiness is a relatively individual state of being. Each person has their own definition of “Happy”. Happiness is an ebb and flow. Sorrow sits with happiness and they often remind each other of the value of the other. The state of happiness often surprises when it makes itself known. It often comes in snippets and is a healing balm, it is a nod that you perhaps are on the right track. Happiness is the peace that one has when your heart is light and free from the density of the should-of, would-of and could-of…and sheltered from the world’s density.

Pricing:

• My works range in price. They take approximately three months to bring to completion and often utilize goldleaf and refractive powders that often are costly. The pricing scale is from 4,000 to 8,000. I try to work with my patron with payment options as to what is best for their situation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://angelicasotiriou.com
• Instagram: @angelicasotiriourausch
• Facebook: @Angelica Sotiriou

I am so humbled by this honor. I was awarded the Orthodox Arts Festival’s “FESTIVAL AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE” in the Visual Arts. I am stunned, because the beautiful artworks of so many artists were showcased that were as deserving as me. I am so grateful for this recognition. Many thanks to the visionary and artist, Yiannis Antoniadis OA for creating this seminal arts event that truly will go down in our archives as a moment in art history worth remembering.

https://www.orthodoxartsfestival.com/awards-of-excellence

With a grateful and humble heart,
Angelica Sotiriou

Originally published here.

Artist Angelica Sotiriou Featured at ShoutOut LAWe had the good fortune of connecting with Angelica Sotiriou Sotiriou and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Angelica Sotiriou, how has your work-life balance changed over time?

The word “balance” to a woman of my generation, is integrated into every decision I have ever made. As a woman career artist, it has not always been easy to find room in my life to create my works and put in the time to establish my “brand”. I have worn many “hats” as a woman. Care-giving-daughter, mother, partner, career-artist, working-teacher, community member, mentor…are just a few of the roles that defined me as a woman, an artist, and the life time roles that I have loved and would have laid down my life for. There has been an ebb and flow with each role to find some semblance of balance. Striving to be equitable in the attention given and the dedication each role received, well that was and is never easy! The balance often meant that I moved much of myself out of the way, being aware to keep just enough of myself to not totally disappear…always leaving just enough of me to maintain a sense of place. Dogged-tenacity, a strong sense of my creative-self and hard work saved me, forming me and my career as an artist. It, art, became my secret driving force behind every morning I awakened. I managed to always give a gentle nod to my art career, one toe so to speak, was always in the mix, as the younger version of my multi-tasking self stayed the course. Balance is a wonderful goal but, as I said, the many women of my generation, as I did, spent the early pre-dawn morning hours in her garage working on her art while her children safely slept. Sometimes, when dividing the pie there was not enough for her…but, that never stopped her. She kept on, kept going, never losing sight of who she was and is. I guess you could say, that IS my “brand”.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

Tenacity, blind faith, hard work, passionate commitment and long-suffering were my devoted partners in my career as an artist. The world has changed since I was a young woman. I was raised in a first generation Greek home. Women did not grow up to become “artists”! As a “creative” there was no other choice for me other than to become an artist. I had absolutely no choice. I was of the generation where home-making and typing were our electives in junior high. In the 1970’s UCLA graduate school may have appeared to be more inviting to support women artists. Judy Chicago and her “Dinner Party”, the Women’s Center in Los Angeles tenaciously carved a pin-hole in the glass ceiling. But, it was still a “good-old-boys-club” in Los Angeles. I was able to meet and work with wonderful artists. Lee Mullican was an incredible mentor for my work as a graduate student, as was the artist Laddie John Dill. Their unbridled accolades and support gave me confidence to continue as a artist long after graduate school was finished. When I left graduate school I became my own advocate. I never managed to find that “art rep”…I had some wonderful shows and my works were and are collected…But, I soon was overwhelmed and had not the desire to go to the many art opening to meet those who might help my career. I was far more of an introvert than I realized. I just wanted to spend whatever time I had in my studio. As earlier shared, it was all about balance. It was not always easy. But, what I have learned is that after six plus decades I never stopped growing as an artist, I never stopped making art (even if it was a daily entry in my sketchbook), I never have seen myself as anything but as an artist who is able to wear many hats. No one just becomes an artist. You either are an artist or you are not. Your understanding, your lens is always through the eyes of an artist. My works have been visual documents, sign posts of the decades of who and where I was spiritually, intellectually, what responsibilities defined my days and what life-passages were shapping my days and my art work. Today, finally, every part of me embraces every role, every shelved dream, every struggle, every success, every shortcoming, every clear-as-a-bell opinion, every moment of BEAUTY, every moment of silence…it is all good. Today, (pre-COVID) I use the gallery space in my studio to invite and show the works of other mid to late career artists who have spent their lives tenaciously making their art, diligently in their studios because they know no other voice. There is an unspoken, shared understanding among this group of working artists…we understand how we arrived at this chapter in our careers…and we can genuinely smile to one another with that all-knowing smile of artists of our generation.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

I would start the first day of our week vacation hiking early at Point Vicente Interpretive Center. We would hike along the Rancho Palos Verdes coastline. Perhaps the whales would be migrating. We would take in the incredible ocean view. We would pack our lunch of delicacies from the Original Giuliano’s Delicatessen in Gardena on the park benches near the the lighthouse. Our afternoon would be spent touring the Point Vicente Lighthouse. Our next day would be to visit San Pedro and the Korean Bell and take in the exhibition at Angels Gate Cultural Center. We would make our way to the Arts district of San Pedro and schedule to visit some of the many artist and artist studios. Perhaps we would spend the following days visiting downtown Los Angeles. We would have a martini at the Union Station Traxx restaurant. Walking then to Philippe The Original and have their french dip. We would make our way to Olivera Street and visit LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. We would drive to downtown LA to see the incredible architecture of Gehry and try to get tickets to a current performance. The following days we would visit Santa Monica and explore the galleries that are open during our pandemic, perhaps Bergamot and William Turner Gallery. We would visit the Santa Monica Pier and for only a dollar have our fortune read by Zoltar. We would walk along as many of the beaches collecting pocketsful of rocks and shells. Eventually we would spend a couple of our days exploring Long Beach and visit MOLA. We would talk to every one we meet and revel in how incredibly blessed it is to live here, now.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

I’d like to give a shoutout to the many art organizations I taught for over the last 45 years. I spent my years sharing my love of the visiual arts teaching to many students. For twenty-eight years I taught at LACMA, touring my students and other teachers…teaching in the galleries full of artists throughout time was and is the best Art History course I ever experieinced. Every group of students became a reliving of my love of the arts. LACMA, MOCA LAUSD, The Music Center, Angels Gate Cultural Center, USC, UCLA were pivotal in shaping, strengthening and clarifying my own understanding of the valuable presence of the visual arts in every life. The lives of the women before me through the arts and literature were my impetus to stay the course. George Eliot, Slyvia Plath, May Sarton, Ann Truitt, Madeline L’engle, Camille Claudel, Frida Kahlo, Sonia Delaunay, Eva Hesse, Judy Baca…shaped my trajectory. The studio artists of Angels Gate Community Ctr. and studio artists of The LOFT Building, 4th and Mesa, San Pedro artists modeled how they just always showed up and “did the work”. Their lives fueled my belief that I am an “artist”… But, I must say and give credit to…my Dad was my first mentor. He passed when I was a young teen. But, he had time to go to every art show in high school and was often the one who spent hours posing for me for my clumsy life drawings. His attention to listening to my long explanations of my childhood sketches gave me the courage to use the visual arts as my life-long language…my “voice”.