OyChicago articles

Arielle, bringing beauty to the world through art

Have you ever gazed at a painting by Chicago Jewish 20-something artist Arielle Sandler? Before you answer that, do you watch the TV shows “Eli Stone” and/or “Brothers & Sisters?” Maybe you caught Will Smith’s and Charlize Theron’s summer blockbuster “Hancock?” Well if the answer is yes to any those questions, then you have seen Sandler’s paintings, which have been featured on both of those shows and in the Will Smith flick. Sandler, who grew up in Cincinnati, but now resides in Chicago, is an abstract landscape oil painter, who explores bright color and surface in her work, applying paint liberally to the canvas, up to an inch thick like “icing on a cake.” Last year, she launched a series of original oil paintings entitled “100 Paintings in 100 Days” and plans to launch the second “100 Paintings in 100 Days,” in 2009. Subscribe to the series at  www.100paintings100days.com and visit www.ArielleSandlerStudio.com to view her other work.

So whether you’re a painting aficionado or a lover of vegetarian Indian food, Motown, or the show “Brothers & Sisters,” Arielle Sandler is a Jew you should know!

1. What did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be an artist.

2. What do you love about what you do today?
I love the challenge of working with colors until they converse with one another.  I love creating beauty in what sometimes seems like an increasingly ugly world.  I love hearing from people around the globe who describe being moved by my work.  How lucky I am…

3. What are you reading?
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience  by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and  The Atlantic .

4. What's your favorite place to eat in Chicago?
Uru-Swati on Devon has the best vegetarian Indian food.  So good!

5. If money and logistical reality played no part, what would you invent?
A health care system that works and is affordable for all.

6. Would you rather have the ability to fly or the ability to be invisible?
Flying would be much more fun, but being invisible would allow for a truer understanding of people.

7. If I scrolled through your iPod, what guilty pleasure song would I find?
“You Can’t Hurry Love” by The Supremes.  It has been a favorite since I was about 6 years old.

8. What's your favorite Jewish thing to do in Chicago—in other words, how do you Jew?
Friday night dinner with friends and family.