Brenda GearFrom necessity, creativity ...
From making paper dolls, to making Barbie doll clothes, cardboard box doll houses, mazes in vacant lots. Early childhood experiences in arts and crafts--ignored, criti-cized, set aside. Choices made, paths followed, dreams and expression set aside. Stability, career, success? Thirty years of tiny glimpses of what lies hidden inside. Finally, an opportunity ... After the years of following that path to security, a chance to explore again what was set aside. Learning to draw and paint at 53. Watercolor, acrylics, collage, Sumi-e. Whatever I choose. A new path chosen, the exciting world of abstract mixed mediums. Back to my early childhood of tearing and cutting snips and scraps of this and that. Some days the dark prevails, some days the light. Ever changing thoughts, ideas, colors, shapes and images come to mind ... or don't. My work often doesn't have a beginning design concept. Just the handling of papers or looking through magazines, an image, photo or color will take me to studio and pieces come together. I love to incorporate an item that has intrigued me or that I've cherished and kept in my cache of treasures. I like the fluidity of collage and mixed mediums. The layering and challenge to get from beginning to end with no set path to follow. It is often difficult, but I believe the end just finds me. I am drawn to nature and have an inherent need to use materials and reference the beauty found around us. My palettes often reflect earth tones, especially my favorite color, quinazoline gold. China Times - a cultural continuum was First Place in the 2018 Twin Rivers Artists Association Judged Show in New Bern and was awarded an Award of Merit at the 2019 Community Arts Council Juried Show in Kinston. I have had other works accepted in juried shows in Fayetteville as well. Visit my website at: brendagearartworks.com |
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