By Pam Rosenblatt

Joy Street Studio artists Ramadi Asati and Madelyn Mann never knew that their casual interactions over the internet four years ago would develop into the personal and artistic union it has today.

‚ÄúI saw Madelyn’s art online and I liked her style,‚Äù said Asati, a Somerville resident. ‚ÄúI started a friendship online just through art and then we met at a caf√© and then it all started like six months later after we’d been talking about each other’s art.‚Äù

Mann, who also lives in Somerville, said Asati and she started to rent the 25.7 x 11.8 square foot Joy Street Studio in July 2007. ‚ÄúSo we’re the new kids,‚Äù she said.

However, their studio looks established, with paintings hanging on four walls, leaning against walls or other paintings, or resting on two separate easels. Paints rest on the floor and there’s an old, comfortable couch located against the wall opposite the entrance to their studio filled with character.

Asati is more abstract than Mann. He told a reporter he is from the planet Neptune and is 5,672 years old. Mann paints in oils on canvas, wood, plexiglass, or glass. Asati uses water based paints and fills in the spaces with oil paints because water based paints cost less. He uses paper, burlap, wood, plexiglass and glass.

While the couple both paint from imagination, Mann tends to work more from photographs and draws intricate yet simple appearing boats, houses on hillsides, and people. Asati creates complicated works such as a piece on a children’s chalkboard with an abstract painting on it and then Compton’s Scattering equation or ‚ÄúRace to Robotica,‚Äù a painting that depicts robots racing against one another, something which Asati finds ironic because, she said, when do robots want to race against each other as they have no concept of winning?

As for the future, Asati is going .com with his artwork, even thinking of advertising on billboards. ‚ÄúI’m starting ramadiasati.com and I’m making Ramadi Asati a household name as a company. I want to put out ads, billboards, everything to make it as commercial as possible. Most artists say that being commercial and doing like it’s a company isn’t really art. But everything’s just a product, so I recognize that it’s a product. I’m just trying to sell beautiful artworks.‚Äù

Mann is also thinking of going a little more commercial and has begun designing calendars and cards, especially for Somerville Open Studios. She said studying architecture for four years in college changed her painting.

“I used more perspective. I just studied architecture at Mass. Art. I guess architecture changed how I painted a little bit.” She said she has always painted in an Impressionist style.

She developed her craft by taking photographs and using the imagery in the pictures which tends to be of buildings and boats. ‚ÄúI like shapes to work with. It’s just a nice shape to work with. And then you can put whatever colors you feel like working with into it. And I guess it comes from pictures I like. Of things I like most of the time,‚Äù she said.