Artist Statements

Lauren Bergman
In this new collection of paintings entitled The Code Red Series I am focused on issues surrounding climate change. My work as a painter explores female identity, the vulnerability of wildlife and children, and the fragility of our world among other broad cultural shifts. Growing up, my mother was a working model as well as a feminist, inspiring me to delve into the conflicts and complexities of female identity. My paintings reside at the juncture of myth and social realism. Through a language of culturally specific symbols, I probe the loss of societal optimism and the ongoing irresolution of feminist issues such as sexuality versus objectification and acquiescence versus empowerment. The paintings court irony as playful imagery and inner narratives confront the conflicting expectations of contemporary culture and the intricate ways in which we as women form our identities.

I am commenting on our own cultural glorifications as well as on how our political and cultural landscape is shifting. I employ a personal iconography to question our imminent future; the world sliding closer and closer to global crises, an environment on the verge of collapse, an economy in which the disparity between rich and poor is ever widening, and how Earth is threatened by terrorism and nuclear holocaust. These works reflect not only my fears, but also my hopes for a course-correction; a groundswell of change that will rein in a more equitable and sustainable future.

Lucille Colin
I am drawn to the duality of art making the equilibrium of confidence and lack of pretension, being cautious as well as reckless even with the possibility of defeat.

The duality of fear and the bravery to destroy a piece that may bring a change an opening. I believe the importance of art today can be unifying explanatory – even hopeful in a doubtful world.

Janet Dow
I have had an enjoyment and affinity for drawing and painting since childhood.

Kristin Flynn
Figure drawing has been a regular practice of mine since high school. I always believed I could never be an accomplished artist until I could represent the endlessly challenging human form. Women fill my sketchbooks and paintings – in lakes or forests – surrounded by flowers, snakes,deer and birds.

My professional life also centered around the human form – I designed clothing for athletics and constantly studied motion and the functional clothing needs of runners and cyclists.

Jennifer Hicks
I love drawing the human figure and I love the challenge that comes along with it. I feel inspired by all of the shapes and forms as well as the movement and energy of the marks I make on my surface. I think humans are very interesting no matter what shape or size.

Amy Husten
I am inspired, challenged and curious to experiment with many different mediums. I aim to celebrate the physicality of the medium as well as celebrate forms found in nature and architecture.

David Klein
Working from the figure returns me to the fundamentals of draftsmanship, that which underlies all my works of art. It begins with the underlying structures from which the external forms are suspended. Within those forms are the elements from which we read that person’s humanity. Its weight and the pull of gravity upon its mass. The slope of the shoulders. And of course, the hands and the face, speaking volumes even in their silence. There is always a story, perhaps untold. Nonetheless, we are informed of its presence through their expression.

Debra Priestly
Drawing is an integral part of my art-making. In some cases, studies inform other works; in others, drawing is the conclusive form of expression. I particularly enjoy the ongoing search for relationships between line, form, and value in figure drawing.

Alexander Rupert
After 10 plus years of art school, responsibilities forced me to split my time between family and corporate work. I retired early to gift myself with picking up where I left off. It’s been a very satisfying journey back to art and nourishing for my spirit.

Steven Rushefsky
These drawings use a reed pen & ink on paper, with some added brush & ink painting. They are from a “quick-draw” session at Jane St Art Center. Almost all of the poses were limited to 2 or 3 minutes. This group of three figures was drawn after approximately 40 practice drawings. Over the course of three hours, my hand got quicker, more decisive and bolder.

Chris Seubert
As a draftsman, painter, printmaker and educator I work from observation and memory describing how light creates volume, form and life. Drawing is my shorthand and painting informs how I illustrate form, light and space. Both are interchangeable with the objective of creating dimensionality and breathing life into my work.

Joanne Pagano Weber
This painting part of an ongoing series that I began in is rooted in drawing, both as an abstract exercise, and as a discipline for capturing the essence of being, motion, and gravity of the human form. Figures drawn in watercolor as quick, randomly placed sketches on the page generated the outcome of the painting. Color progressions were initiated by colors used at the outset, and decisions made are based on both intuition and process. I do not know what theend result will look like but I know when the painting is complete.

This kind of creative resolution is liberating and meditative. It focuses me for any other work that I do. Its abstract nature allows the visual manifestation of unconscious thought in ways that are different from, but inform my figurative abstract work in other media or processes.