Irene Christensen
GOLD JUGGLER, inks on rice paper, 2011
W 39 x H 18 inches.
“Irene Christensen’s art is about painting as a magical act. Her images repeat and are transformed, as words and images in poems. She likes to maintain a sense of wonder in her art. That life is strange and quirky, and contradictory, that tragedy and comedy are not played out in separate theaters, but co-exist, side by side.”
Excerpt from art critic John Zeaman
I am involved in creating a personal iconography. These symbols are rooted in the figurative and landscape images with colors setting moods rather than copying nature. These paintings are done through traditional oil or acrylic, mixed media, while the installations of metamorphic wooden boxes are about the merging of electronic age and organic life. They are my translation of the spirits, humor and erotics of life.
Michael Hayes
THUMBELINA"S DREAM, oil, 2011
W 28 X H 30 inches
“Art speaks to us of human hopes and fears across time and cultures. In my paintings and collages, I look to a meeting point of rage, lust, divinity, and irony that for me is the crucial mystery of being human. My starting points can be literary fragments, newspaper headlines, or memories. My objective is to transform violence, trauma, sex, and death into abstract images of riveting beauty.
“I push for an image that has a sense of random inevitability and juxtaposes elements in a way that surprises me and speaks feelingly. The goal is to go with the process to a deep and primitive place. When an image makes me laugh with delight and recognition, I know I'm on the right track.”
- Michael Hayes