EIC Felicia Sullivan and Senior Art Editor Brandy Reed recently interviewed amazing artist and performer, Cynthia von Buhler.

Von Buhler and her work have been featured as the cover stories of the following publications: Communication Arts, Step by Step Graphics, The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix, The Improper Bostonian, LA's Entertainment Today, and many others. Articles and reviews have also been featured in ID Design Annual, Publisher's Weekly, Vogue, The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix, Alternative Press, Magnet, Paramour, How, Print Design Annual, Salon.com, Art New England, Carpe Noctem, and many others Her work has been shown in galleries, museums, and universities in New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, San Jose, and Los Angeles. Von Buhler is not only a prolific artist, she is also founder of her own record company, CvB Records, which she has used to raise money for AIDS awareness.

Click the Image Above to Purchase Cynthia's New Children's Book from Amazon.com

Brandy Reed: I see a real darkness and grunge in your work. What inspires this?

CvB: I like to purge my inner demons. I've always been attracted to dark imagery. When I was a little girl, I would look through my parents' art books, tear out prints of the darkest and most disturbing images I could find, and then tape them to my bedroom walls. My bedroom was pink with a frilly, flowery canopy and perfectly matched furniture, so these pin- ups made for an interesting mix, to say the least.

While the Carrozza (my maiden name) household was loving and warm, it could also be very loud, aggressive, and frightening. Six screaming, unruly Italian-American children. Tempers would flare regularly. I suppose that I'm suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder syndrome and it surfaces in my work. Also, my birthday is a week before Halloween, so my parties always consisted of children in costumes such as skeletons, witches, snow white, etc... My birthday was a happy time for me so it gave me positive connections with the dark side.

I relate most strongly to the Mexican approach to death and dying. The Day of the Dead holiday really speaks to me. As for the "grunge," I prefer old decayed art and sculpture much better than when things are retouched or fixed. I like the history the decay speaks of.

BR: Do you consider yourself a spiritual or religious person? If so, what beliefs do you follow?

CvB: Not in the traditional sense. I look to nature for my spirituality. The circle of life. We live, we die, we turn into dust, the dust turns into dirt, the dirt feeds the grass and trees, they grow.....and so on.... I am fascinated by all religions, but I do not see them as reality. I admire the tradition and beauty in them while at the same time I criticize their close-mindedness. If religion makes people more morally aware, that is the best thing that it does.

BR: How have your spiritual/religious beliefs shaped your work?

CvB: I was brought up as a Catholic. I went to Catholic school for a while. My mother is fairly religious. If you were being naughty or talking back to her and then you stubbed your toe she would say, "God is punishing you!" I don't see Jesus that way at all. I think people use him as a scapegoat. I like to think he was a very intelligent, peaceful person. Exceedingly liberal and forgiving. Almost Eastern in his beliefs. Do I think he was the "Son of God"? Not at all. I don't believe in that. I believe that he was a special, unique, thoughtful MAN. Perhaps he traveled to the East during his missing years? Perhaps he was a time traveler? Visited by aliens? I don't know. But I don't think his father had anything to do with him being crucified. What kind of father would do that? What for? The whole thing is bizarre.

BR: Do you consider yourself an optimist or pessimist?

CvB: Well, my cup is usually half full, but I'm trying to change that in myself. I'm more at peace now. I'm a very hopeful pessimist, I suppose.

BR: What shaped your earliest yearnings toward art?

CvB: My family was very involved in the arts in the Berkshires where I grew up. They took us to plays, ballet, museums, and the like, at a very early age. My family is very artistic, almost every member. We were always working on art projects, drawing, and making things. My parents were involved in the community and would offer our services to make things like floats for the Halloween parade. I remember all of us working on an enormous papier-mache witch in our basement. We had to make her in parts because her head was so big that it took up the whole room. She was installed on a crane. She had green skin and a huge wart on her nose.

BR: Aside from any formal training or education, what kind of preparation have you gone through in polishing your work?

CvB: I was taking college classes in painting and drawing while still in high school. I had private oil painting classes as a teen. I won awards for art as a child, which fueled my confidence. Then I went to college for art and studied abroad as well.

I read a lot. I try to gain as much knowledge from intelligent and wise people as possible. I have always studied humanity, even as a child. I express what I have learned in my work. It isn't always pretty.

BR: Do you hang art in your home by other artists, and if so, what pieces?

CvB: I have a portrait of me that a prisoner in jail painted and sent to me, crude folk art paintings by Glen Wurz, an etching by Nancy Haselbacher, a pillow installation by Kathleen Bitetti, a portion of an installation on beauty by Pia Schachter, a tower that houses my doves and is sometimes called "The Phantom Toll Booth" by my neighbors is in my front yard, which was created by an artist named Jeff Smith, a hand carved sofa with hands cupping breasts by Laura Donaldson, a mechanical dog/babydoll with moving wire legs and a squeaking device by The Empire Snafu Restoration project, a small painting by Darla Villani, and a few other items....

BR: What is it about your preferred mediums that you are drawn to?

CvB: I layer gouache on canvas that has been primed with a dark shade. I also work in oils. I like adding real, living, or dead objects and creatures into my work for a surreal effect. (See my artist's statement on my website).

BR: What other mediums might you like to try out sometime?

CvB: I have been working with altered found objects such as my Cynth-O-Matic machine (see website). I also like working with text. I'd like to explore the use of my 4X5 camera some more. Right now I only use it for shooting my finished art. I enjoy creating performance art and installations, and I want to do more of that. I also like illustrating and writing children's books.

Thank you for the interview, Cynthia. One last question. Felicia Sullivan: What influences has New York offered you as an artist -- to your process and the final product?

CvB: I'm not sure yet -- I have only had a place there for 9 months. Ask me again after I've been there for a year. But as an inspiration, it's always present in my mind.