Snowbasin Utah 2018
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To be an artist is to be a maker. For me Art is a conversation with the infinite. It is the act of opening yourself to the universe and truly listening. |
The Hunt - 24" x 30" oil and metal leaf 2018
Collection of Susan & Jim Bartolotti Paleo point commission |
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Corn Mother concepts: The Corn Mother is the archetype of the giver.
The first corn mother I painted was completed for my show Forces of Nature – Transcendent Exploration in 2014. I was seeking to express relationships with the earth and the universe by painting the forms in stones, shells and coral. I was exploring my understanding of ideas like release and return. By adding metal leaf, dry metallic and resistance pigments to my oil paints I was able to achieve color effects that changed and moved with the light and time of day. This technique lead to an evolution in my work. I refer to it as organic expressionist. This was the moment when I stopped focusing on the external world and turned to my internal world as the subject of my paintings. |
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The Bears - The bear is a deeply personal animal and form for me, representing both loved ones and events.
My family has been traveling the corridor between the Ohio River Valley and Florida for many generations. We have a lot of bear stories. In my paintings I return to them again and again. As a child of five or six, on a spring afternoon, in a clearing in the smoky mountains along the Blue Ridge parkway, my family pulled over for a bit of lunch. I wandered off, and happened upon two bear cubs in a clearing. We were about the same size. We seemed to recognize each other as potential friends and having a box of cracker jacks naturally I shared them. As they came closer and closer both their mother and mine noticed. Parents can be funny. My dad seemingly from nowhere snatched me up in his arms and we ended up at the far side of the clearing. The bear cubs ended up at the other. I never got to tell them goodbye and so I think they have remained with me. |
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"It is important what you see. Art is about the conversation you are having." "Watching the sky for portents I fly through holes in the universe Made by the motherchild of creation I land to be carried by wisdom turtles To where the sleeping bear awakens" - Quote from a Dallas street artist named Roddy about the work of D YaeL Kelley |