|
CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY REGULAR WEBSITE
Hello from Vermont!
Recently,
I've taken up abstractions... (again!)
As I continued working on
these paintings (more like playing with
these), they reminded me of neurons. I
think they are about Dopamine and maybe
Serotonin, and Acetylcholine, swimming,
exchanging and trying like hell to
balance each other out, looking for
peace. So, although I let the painting
make its own story, and it did, I am
still a story-maker at heart, and this
is my fantasy about synaptic
conversations. I'm sure the story is
left over from all the discussions on
neurotransmitters with Allen's
neurologist and his prescribing
psychiatrist.
|
| These two are going in a
show soon. I have a few more that I'll
post, too. Stay tuned to this page. so
far all my abstractions are 30 x 24" |
|
|
ABOUT THIS
WORK...
To start with, I have called
myself an artist ever since I was splashing
poster-paint onto construction paper as a
preschooler. Over the years, my work has moved
through very distinct phases shaped by
experience, necessity and interest.
After graduating from Montserrat College of Art
(Massachusetts), I moved to Vermont and painted
landscapes and still life from
observation. Much later, during the years
I was care-giving for my husband while he was
sick and dying, my work shifted entirely into
black-and-white narratives - comics and graphic
novels. I could not access color, either
emotionally or visually.
A year or so after my husband died, I traveled
to Italy to study painting with Christopher
Bell. I found myself a beginner again. I had
been stuck in black and white tiny ink drawings
for so long, I was intimidated by painting
again. Under his patient tutelage, where
we worked with acrylics, vibrant colors and
new-to-me application processes, something began
to loosen. Returning to Vermont, I initially did
a few small ink drawings of the Tuscan
landscape, which was still my go-to comfort
level. But I was yearning for color, and wanted
to try out the fascinating and new-to-me
application techniques I’d learned in Italy.
What followed was a bodily memory: early
childhood pleasure in color, form, movement, and
allowing a touch of symbolic meaning—what
happens when I do not impose, when I let color
and form speak for themselves. What happens when
I just let the energy speak?
Years earlier, in the 80s, I had studied
Abstract Expressionism directly under five
students of Hans Hofmann (mid 20th century
abstract expressionist). I returned to this
lineage through a physical, spontaneous, and
joyful practice—in my studio I began moving,
dancing to music, and working rapidly with brush
and ink on rice paper. From these works, I
selected bits and pieces to expand and develop
on larger canvases and to let them live and
change. I’ve spent the last couple of months
working on these larger abstract paintings in
acrylics, and using the layering techniques I
learned from Christopher Bell in Italy.
IN SUM: This recent body of
abstract work is about energy: how it moves,
resists, and transforms. I adhere to the
adage: Painting is its own language.
This work develops through careful attention
to what the painting itself demands. Structure
and spontaneity coexist and inform one
another. Color functions as force and depth. I
begin each painting without knowing what it
will ask of me and I allow it to develop
organically. Painting is a joyful and
surprising adventure.
Marcie Vallette BFA, M.Ed, LPN
|
|
| Here are some of the very small
pen and ink wash drawings, (usually like 5 or 6"
longest side) my comfort level at the time,
until I could really mentally process all the
lessons of Art Toscana, this is what I worked on
all summer. |
| This is where Chris showed us
some of the arch-shaped clay roofing tiles
(you can see them on the right lower part of
the drawing), which were made by Roman
soldiers who placed slabs of clay around their
forearms to get that shape. Chris walk with us
through a few medieval villas pointing out
many symbolic sculptures and mythological
significance and historical areas of interest.
|
|
ABOUT PAINTING IN ITALY; I
attended "Art Toscana" - a small art school in
Barga. I highly recommend it to anyone. Just
fantastic in every way. I have zero complaints.
Clean, pleasant, comfortable, private rooms or
couples rooms, a pool and lots of studio time
and plein air time, and some shopping and
restaurant and sightseeing time as well.
We had wine tasting, too! It was a week of
painting with 10 people. I was the only
American. Everyone was super kind (and concerned
about our country) and supportive of me and of
each other. It was absolutely wonderful and
great fun. The food was out of this world of
COURSE and we had wine and activities in the
evenings. I managed to behave myself.
I stand corrected. Wine and lots of
laughter started flowing at noon. It's a
real EVENT - all week! I mean coming from being
a tad isolated in rural Vermont to all of this
was fantastic for me! Chris is a wonderful
teacher and he and his wife, Krysia really took
excellent care of us, driving us to various
villas and making sure all was ok at all times.
It was the perfect first venture out on my own
as a new widow. Just go if you can, it was one
of the best things I've ever done for
myself! https://art-toscana.com |
|
| I became interested in the beauty
of the cobblestones. I looked it up and the
village was built around 1500, give or take,
since the dates I ran across on the
internet varied. Some accounts put it back
a bit further and I wondered if it endured the
Black Plague. I thought about the many many feet
walking on that bridge, and going through the
tunnels, the romances and deaths. There are two
TV dish antennae in this drawing. |
|
There are two TV dish antennae in this drawing as well.
Can you see them?
|
| Here's the one I started (of
Fornovolasco), and finished at home in Vermont.
Sort of. Not sure it's done. I cut off the sides
and changed the shape of the whole thing. Plus a
woman showed up in the window so I let her stay.
I will probably work into it a little more. |
|
Not so sure about this one,
I will probably work back into it.
|
|
Lucca was a day of sight seeing.
I had a great time there!
Lucca was around in ancient Roman times, as well
as middle ages and through to today. It's a
bustling walled fortress/city and some of us
climbed a lookout tower.
We walked through areas that seem untouched
since even more ancient times, at least to me.
This was particularly when we went through the
tunnels under the walls -- I felt the TIME.
Lucca
has been there for over 2,200 years,
with origins dating back to the Etruscan period
and a documented existence as a Roman colony
since 180 BCE. In 1348 Lucca was devastated by
the Black Plague.
I'm so interested in how science, major human
events, art and history coalesce.
|
|
|
|