Who: Painter and art student Marilyn Volkman

What: Her very first exhibition, “”Beautiful Destruction: Irrational Emotions and Desires,”” is showing at Espresso Art, 942 E. University Blvd.

Bio: Volkman is a studio art junior at the UA who will soon begin applying to graduate school. She has lived in Tucson and has also spent time in Germany because she has military parents.

Wildcat: What inspires you?

Volkman: Psychological issues. Philosophies of particular people around me. Being very aware of my surroundings and aware of my mental state all of the time. And color. Using color is inspiring to me.

W: What art inspires you?

V: The German Expressionists are the most inspirational to me, just as a child I was exposed to a lot of German art. (Ernst Ludwig) Kirchner. He’s done a lot of city scenes, but he uses color in a very emotional, expressionistic way. He talks about the modernization of human, a person emotionally.

W: What mediums do you work in?

V: Oil, and I use oil on masonite and oil on canvas. I do drawings, but the focus is on painting.

W: What makes you a unique artist/gives you a unique voice?

V: I like to work with painting philosophy and like basic psychological issues that apply to every single person. So it’s like there’s academics and education mixed with the average person, or like as it applies to everyone.

W: What’s your most recent work?

V: I used a clown in my work, it’s that one right there (points), the one with the clown. I used a clown in my work quite a bit. Mostly in drawings, but I’ve used it in a few paintings. And the clown is about the individual in society and how we wear articles of costumes in order to function in a society. Without those articles, we’d no longer be able to play the role we’ve decided to play in life.

W: When did you start making art?

V: In childhood, I was always encouraged by my parents. I kinda viewed childish-like things as my art, so I always had a view of myself as an artist. So I was kind of a serious kid I guess. Then I took a painting class in German Volkshochschule in Wuerzburg, so that was my first formal painting experience.

W: What piece have you done that you’re most proud of?

V: I think the piece that’s most related to myself is something called the “”Gingerbread Massacre.”” That one is about myself in the political situation. Because my father’s in the military, he went to Iraq. So I have a direct connection to that situation. It’s about society not having a direct connection to the things that are happening in Iraq to the Iraqis and to the soldiers.

W: Do you collaborate with other artists?

V: I like getting feedback from instructors and other artists that I work with in school.

W: What do you think of Tucson?

V: I like it. I like it because it’s an organic place to live. And it’s at once desolate and very energetic.

W: What’s next for you?

V: Next, I am going to make another series of paintings. They will be oil paintings again. They will be about Tucson being empty but lively and how that affects me. I’ve done a lot of writing on it, but I haven’t painted it yet.