Art ART IN THE FAMILY Long Island City father and daughter are prolific artists with 1,000 paintings stored in their home By AngelA MAtuA Across the street from Long Island City’s MoMa PS1 a father and daughter duo have been creating their own art for years. Carlos and Aliyah Seidler have more than 1,000 paintings scattered throughout their two-story house with some of the pieces dating back to the 1980s. Carlos Seidler, a retired professor, and Aliyah Seidler, a junior at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, combine their love of drawing and painting to make their masterpieces. While his daughter uses her vivid imagination to sketch out scenes, Carlos Seidler uses his love of color to complete the works. Carlos Seidler cites Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo Di Vinci as some of his favorite artists. 22 March 2017 i LIC COURIER i www.qns.com “I admire Vincent in the technique he uses with colors,” he said. “That’s why I use colors because of him, and I admire Leonardo because of the poetry and sensibility that he shows. Almost like he’s painting life. You can see the souls. Most artists can never achieve that I think. When you look at a painting and you think, ‘It’s alive!’” Aliyah Seidler said she started drawing “as soon as she started walking.” Her sketches can be found along the walls of the Seidler house, especially in a small storage room where they keep many of their paintings and supplies. Many of her sketches focus on relationships between family and friends. The duo is also working on a series of paintings featuring “matchstick people,” small characters that resemble matchsticks. “I give her the canvas and she draws,” Carlos Seidler said. “She gives it to me. I color it. And usually she decides what to draw. Except on a few occasions when I ask her. Bust most of all I love to be surprised by what she comes up with, with her imagination.” Each of them works on their own pieces as well. Carlos Seidler uses an interesting technique to create a series of “stains” that resemble alien-like faces. The back of a wooden brush is used to create intricate shapes that are used for eyes or mouths. “But most amazingly I think is the perception,” he said. “There is no face there but the brain sees a face. It’s just stains.” The longtime Long Island City resident said he is inspired by science and different regions in the brain. Photos by Angela Matua
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