Virgilyn Driscoll

Artist Statement:

PAINTING IN ABSTRACTION

Painting abstractions allows me great freedom with color, shapes, textures, spaces and inner concepts and meanings. Exploring with great intent what is not possible with observation from life is my main objective. It is based more on experiences and opportunities that have made an impression on my psyche as well as my response to life itself. These works are energetic and very bold.  

By painting webs of color, turning a blank canvas into a mystery of inner and outer spaces and shapes, I offer the viewers a journey into their own minds eye.  There is a mystery in abstraction and many meanings can be the observed by the person viewing it.  The viewer brings his or her own experiences to the painting.  That builds a new understanding of the painting.  That completes the painting.

That is so exciting and important to me.  I truly meet the empty canvas and paint a kind of poetry which evolves from all the memories and lifelong experiences I have had.  I never know what or how a painting will evolve and I could NEVER replicate a painting.  Each one is its own painting…...has its own message. Many images and ideas pass through my mind as I approach a painting - traces of my experiences, images, sights, shapes and symbols, sounds, and gentle paths – and my response to life itself. To me, that is what creativity is all about.  Layers of paint are brushed on, maybe scratched and/or wiped away, built up, and combining this with the spontaneity of markings and shapes, gestural and fluid, I create a painting. Every work I complete presents opportunities to discover fresh meanings, directions and expressions.

 I have a large background in art history through my teaching and I am sure I have been influenced by many of the masters over the years such as Matisse, Van Gogh, Hans Hoffman, William De Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Lee Krasner.  I continue to invent, explore and develop as an artist….ever changing…ever evolving to remain highly creative and true to myself.