ARTIST’S STATEMENT

“Both of my parents are artistically inclined and lovers of art – my father a photographer and art collector, my mother a painter. Drawing and painting came relatively easily to me at an early age.
Twenty years ago, I began more seriously to explore painting as a medium of personal expression. At first I focused on naturalistically drawn monochrome and two-tone studies of the human figure, often using a professional model in movement or an academic pose. Often the objective was to promote a color-blind view of the world and explore emotion through body language. My canvas surfaces were clean and smooth, and the images were sensual and “pretty,” but not as multifaceted in meaning as my later work.
My approach has evolved a lot since then. After years of studying and performing theatre, becoming a mother and facing serious health issues, my work has changed dramatically. Today my paintings are more conceptual, often with myself, friends or family as subjects. For some, the portraits of my children resonate with the work of Mary Cassatt. But where Cassatt’s images are design and color first and character studies second, my work centers around emotion. Where Mary Cassatt images are depictions, mine are intended to be felt. The passion in my work also has been compared with the German artist Kathe Kollwitz. Kollwitz was a print-maker and sculptor who captured the effect of war and privation on
families. In contrast, my work draws from American genre painting and magic realism, but we do share a visceral appreciation of relationships and the human condition.
At present, my painting technique involves sketching the image into gesso, then applying a metallic ground. Over this I pour different combinations of blues, blacks, reds, golds and browns, allowing the paint to dry into the textured surface. The image is then laid over this complex background in several layers, then sealed with a series of glazes. Another artist recently told me that my large, heavily textured and thickly painted canvases “read like the flesh of Rembrandt’s mother.” He continued: “The subjects’ features are worn, etched by time, painfully familiar with tragedy, yet fully present and economically described.”
Many of my latest paintings are representational, reflecting my interest in mysticism, spirituality and a deeper connection with Nature. I often find myself inspired by the images in poetry and literature, as well as the work of visual artists like Victorian painter, Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Chicano Artist, George Yepes.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of my current direction is that the more I connect with my deepest passions and inner questions, the more my art seems to resonate with others. As one person recently said in reaction to my StreetWalker painting, “That is exactly how I feel about my life right now.”

PROFILE

Mollie has had numerous one-person shows and participated in several group exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, and throughout the Phoenix and San Diego area. Her work has been featured in several publications and many prominent collections throughout the United States. She is currently the Coordinator if the First Unitarian Universalist Art Guild and Bard Hall Gallery.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

“My contemporary Zen paintings please me most when I’m able to show the essence of the subject in the fewest possible strokes. The four treasures of ink stone, ink stick, rice paper, and bamboo brushes are used to create a unique blend of abstraction and realism. The painting is successful when the viewer is captured into a peaceful center.”

PROFILE

Rosemary was educated at UC Santa Barbara and UC extension, Palomar College. She studied Oriental Brush painting for 9 years under Jean Chua Shen at San Diego City College, 7 years (biannually at Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery, and studied with American School of Japanese Arts master teacher Kazuaki Tanahasi. Rosemary has had several solo exhibitions and has exhibited throughout California, in New York City, and Taipei, Taiwan. Her work has been widely published in several books and has also won several major awards, including Mandell Weiss Charitable Trust Award, used for Scripps Hospital Lobby and North Wing Paintings, the Sumi-e Society of America-Boku Undo Award, and American Artists of Chinese Brush Painting-Most Creative Award. Her paintings are in over 650 private collections.