Beyond Appearances: Intricate Portraits - Past, Present, Future

In Honor of Women's History Month

GE Women's Network celebrates 15th Anniversary with ART

Beyond Appearances: Intricate Portraits – Past, Present, Future

Four of my works are being shown alongside the work of four other women artists in this exhibit at the General Electric Headquarters  in Fairfield, CT. The show is up through April 26, 2013.

The show is curated and arranged by Picture That, LLC, a company that specializes in promoting cultural awareness through the arts.

From the GE Cultural Fine Art Gallery website: "The portraits presented in this exhibition reveal the thoughts, relationships, and realities that lie beyond the surface. Dreams, recollections, and connections between generations are captured across the selected canvases."

"Flight Plan", 23x32, oil

Dreams of Flying, oil, 18x24 

"Oracle", 22x30, Charcoal and Pastel

“Mary Lee as Artemisia Gentileschi” Incognito Project, 16x16,  oil

Terry's work is "...focused on the inner workings of her subjects' hearts and minds. The personalities and individual stories that simmer within a woman's subconscious are on display in most of her work.

While Mathis's fixation on the Early Renaissance is literal, Strickland goes a step further, portraying her subject as a famous 17th Century painter in "Mary Lee as Artemisia Gentileschi." Not only is she juxtaposing histories, but delving and pulling each in to the other to form a new context in which Gentileschi and Mary Lee represent an artistic paradigm.

In other works, the psychic symbolism of flight is also on display, as Strickland defines the intuitive desire to soar in both "Dreams of Flying," and "Flight Plan." By transforming and taking to the sky, Strickland's subject is able to find new heights and visualize new perspectives beyond her position on the ground."

"Madame and the Madonna Enthroned", Oil, Barbara Mathis

"Dana Watkins and Shirley Chisholm",  Acrylic, Simone Spruce-Torres

"Time Enough",  Upcycled Junk Mail, Greeting Cards on Canvas,  Sandhi Schimmel Gold

"The Icon", Oil,  Norma Greenwood

My painting “Mary Lee as Artemisia Gentileschi” is part of The Incognito Project. More information and details about the painting can be found on pages 38-41 of the book about the project.

Here's is a recent interview I did with ABC 33/40's Dave Baird about The Incognito Project.

What the Heck am I Trying to Say?

I recently re-worked my artist statement, a challenge for all visual artists, but an important process as well. If we, as artists don't know what we're talking about who does?

I thought it would be an interesting exercise to relate specific pieces to different parts of my artist statement to see where I'm exploring what topic. I've done it here with work specifically that will be in the Figurative Group Show at Peterson-Cody Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, February 2011.

Using the human figure and still life objects I consider intangibles, challenging myself to capture small nuance in relationships, life, death,  and love. Much of my work is about transitions, whether it is a midlife juncture or coming of age as a universal truth. These paintings are decisions reflected and possibilities contemplated. 

(As in "Near at Hand", I'm dealing with symbolic walls that can appear in relationships or in "On With the Show" I was thinking about the continuum of time, the birds are flying into and out of the painting suggesting that the show must go on, WE must press on, as surely as time passes this too shall pass.)  

 I’m intrigued by the idea of a work of art looking like an old master’s painting but with a contemporary edge, as an artist I want to be a filter for the time I live in. 

(In "The Ascent", the figures are very classically rendered however the ladder is a modern aluminum one, or "Call of Duty", which has the feel of a Renaissance portrait but the imagery from Superman comics, my red haired model in "Dreams of Flying" brings to mind a Botticelli Venus but with the addition of the airplane there is no mistaking her for one) 

I’m frequently inspired by fairy tales, superheroes, or works of literature, and reexamine them in a contemporary way. Mythical characters may become a device to explore our responses to modern day situations, for example Superman becomes a symbol for the mighty dreams each of us hold close to our chests. 

(As in "The Call of Duty" and "If Music Be the Food of Love, Play On" which has it's title from the first line of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night play)

Recurring themes, of flying and birds, have been turning up in my work, kind of a surprise personal imagery and that I was not conscious of adding. My paintings are so long in the works that I'm delighted when I discover a surprise such as this.

American Art Collector Magazine previews the February Peterson-Cody Gallery Group Figurative Show

I'm delighted to be showing in Santa Fe! 

Be on the look out for American Art Collector February 2011 issue! They should be in bookstores near the end of January.  I'll post works by the other artists to be included as soon as I know what's up. My other paintings to be included in the show, besides the paintings listed in the article, are "Near at Hand" 47x32 and "On with the Show" 30x22. 

Veer Magazine Review

The Summer Show at Mayer Fine Art Gallery in Norfolk, Va has been reviewed by Betsy DiJulio for Veer Magazine.

 

Here a few of mine that are in the show. "Dreams of Flying", 

  "On With the Show"

  

and "Don't Blink"

My work is in good company with the work of Michael Fitts from Charlottesville, VA,

 Christine Harris, Norfolk,

 Alexey Terenin from Prague, Chech Republic,

 and gallery owner and artist Sheilla Giollitti.

Here's the review.  Dark Art Shines at Summer Show

Here's Terry's Website 

New Works Show, PressitOn Art Gallery, Miami

I'm thrilled to be participating on a group show at PressitOn Art Gallery in Miami, Aug 27-Sept 31 2009.

I'll be joining wonderful artists Laura Dinello, Elena Madden, Tobia Makover, Cedric Smith and new gallery artist, surrealist photographer Jamie Baldridge.

The director has chosen "Flight Plan" (23x32), "Dreams of Flying" (18x24), and "Trust and Betrayal, Samson and Delilah" (36x52) for this show.

"Flight Plan" (23x32) and detail

"Dreams of Flying" (18x24) and detail

In "Flight Plan" and "Dreams of Flying" I see threads that have been showing up in my work of late, ideas of flight, birds and nests. There are so many symbolic connotations associated with these images, thoughts of freedom, achieving new heights, seeing things from a different angle than we're accustomed to.

It's exciting to find a commonality in a body of work that surprises me, an element that I wasn't consciously including in the design. My paintings take weeks to finish so one would think there would be few surprises left by the time I pronounce a piece finished, but sometimes I don't know what a piece is really about till months later.

"Trust and Betrayal, Samson and Delilah" (36x52) and detail

Samson and Delilah was a fascinating painting to do. It's a painting about choice, even Delilah could have made a different choice. It made me ponder thoughts of trust and betrayal. Still a subject worthy of consideration.

Samson and Delilah won the Alabama 2-D Artist Award at the Red Clay Survey, a regional juried show at Huntsville Museum of Art, in Huntsville, AL before traveling to Miami.

The show was juried by Margaret Lazzari, an Associate Professor in the Roski School of Fine Arts of the University of California in Los Angeles.

More about all the exciting upcoming events at PressitOn Art Gallery Miami at www.pressitonart.com