Passion, Discipline and Restraint: Artist London Amara and The Inspiration Behind a Dynasty

NAPLES, Fla. - Jan. 25, 2016 - PRLog -- Some artists and their art are influenced by life, and some can’t seem to separate the two. Artist London Amara is definitely the latter, and lucky for us, embracing life’s passionate and often uncertain terms with discipline and restraint is what she does best.

Last month, Amara created another breathtaking 7 foot painting for the December 2015 Night At The Nest, Florida Gulf Coast University’s annual fundraiser and gala. (http://www.prlog.org/12515815-artist-london-amara-increases-fgcus-dunk-city-net-worth.html) After the event, Graham Diemer (Assistant AD for Advancement at FGCU) contacted Amara for a commissioned painting. “I assumed he had seen “Net Worth,” and was interested in big, bold, abstract art with a competitive undercurrent. What I didn’t expect was his love story that would inspire me.”

Amara is smiling and refuses to disclose the details of what Mr. Diemer shared. Instead, she says simply, “I am honored to be chosen to mark such an incredible moment in his life. He has found his soulmate and their history has every ingredient of a classic love story. How they met, his immediate connection with her, her brilliance, their record breaking athletic accomplishments, the intensity involved in navigating an intimate and (temporarily) long distance relationship…all of these are in the painting, and you don’t need to know the details to feel their passion. It’s all there.”

For "Dynasty," Amara introduced a mirrored image of an abstracted basketball net. The aniconism of her images uses replicated intersections, concentrating on light/shadow, black/white, and tonal, monochromatic palettes. She allows repetition and intersection to reference interconnectedness, strength, and structure. “I relinquish control in the initial phases to employ serendipitous results. During the last phases, I transition into a fluid and structured network, instinctively balancing the chaos with calm, abstracted imagery and/or pattern.”

It works. Her paintings have a way of providing a calm structure, progressively circulating the viewer in and out of the gentle chaos, creating a high contrast, energized movement, suspended in a delicate tension.

Amara’s notorious Athena-meets-Aphrodite personality is omnipresent both in her philosophical views and her art. “I have always been passionate about the discipline and restraint that letting go in art and life require. We learn to moderate and restrain our natural responses to fear and self doubt. By doing this, we invite creativity and freedom to take over. It’s kind of an excruciating bliss. For me, creating art has always felt like this. If I get scared or sad about something, I force myself to do the thing that terrifies me the most. I use my art to challenge it, to go to battle if necessary. I refuse to be defeated. It’s my way of maintaining a sense of power…I need to win. I do what I need to do to fall in love with my fear.”

She’s not kidding.

Enter classic example #168: Amara went through a series of difficult events, including a heartbreaking separation and divorce in 2011. She agreed to have the entire event turned into a film and was cast as the lead actress. Amara then created over 100 paintings, 63 poems, 2 life-size welded steel sculptures and four sketchbooks of drawings in preparation for the film. Her experience was showcased in her 2013 critically acclaimed solo exhibition at Sydney & Berne Davis Art Center, titled “CHAOS.” She also became indefinitely linked with the Sydney & Berne Davis Art Center when she chosen as the first artist to be showcased with Google 360. (Tom Hall, Examiner, http://www.examiner.com/article/joining-google-360-community-davis-art-center-now-offers-interior-virtual-tours) Amara references the exhibition by saying, “Its inspiration surfaced from life-altering events personally experienced…the willingness to create from those events is the heart of the power behind the intensity of the work.” (2013, Tom Hall, Examiner http://www.examiner.com/article/davis-art-center-presents-the-art-of-london-amara-may)

After a brief retreat in 2014-15, this young artist has an incredible line up scheduled for 2016, 2017 and 2018, including her second 2016 commission to be completed at the end of January for another high profile client in Southwest Florida. In addition to a rigorous painting schedule, Amara is a prolific poet and is currently compiling a collection of her poetry and photography scheduled for publishing in 2017. Stay tuned for sneak peeks and updates: www.londonamara.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/london.amara.1. To make appointments, schedule studio visits, and subscribe to the upcoming newsletter, send a request to: londonamara@londonamara.com.

Amara is an American born visual artist recognized for her large-scale industrial, gestural and metaphoric sculpture, paintings and drawings. Educated in Fine Arts at Columbus College of Art and Design, she uses a varied practice of replicated objects, paint, charcoal, graphite, fabric and welded steel. She is the recipient of a 2011 commission at PGA’s Innsbrook and was awarded a 2012 commission from the Tampa Bay Lightning Professional Hockey Team. Her work has been featured in MSABC, Rising Sky Films, The Examiner, Innisbrook, The Oasis, Space 39 Gallery, Daas Gallery, Ferrari Gallery, Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, Florida Gulf Coast University, Robb and Stucky, Gulf Coast Times, Tampa Bay Times Forum, ArtSWFL, Arts Tampa Bay, Fine Mark Bank, Muvico Ybor City, The Tampa Bay Lightning Professional Hockey Team, Google 360, Allstate Insurance, St. Pete Fashion Week, Chillounge, Cars and Couture, Tampa Bay Times, Ft. Myers News Press, Florida Weekly, Ft. Myers Magazine, and the world renowned Dupont Registry. Amara lives and works in Naples, Florida.