| CATHIE JOY YOUNG "Passion of Art" |
Something About Cathie Joy Young I am a painter living and working in Portland, Oregon. I moved here to attend the Pacific NW College of Art after living in many different States in the U.S (being an Air force brat), as well as in the UK – (I am a dual citizen of both countries). I have pursued art off and on since graduating from PNCA many moons ago but it is only recently that I have begun showing and selling my work steadily having established gallery representation in Palm Springs, CA. and displaying my work online and at alternative space venues in the NW. I began painting exclusively in the studio again in 2005 after a 4 year hiatus. I had previously burnt myself out from painting murals commercially in a representational style which left me with no creative energy to do my own work. When I went back to making my own imagery I wanted to paint and let the process lead the composition. Through the process the composition evolves as I pay very close attention to all the formal aspects of color, texture, negative space, etc. and observe the content as it develops. I find it fascinating and never feel solely responsible for what I end up with; usually that involves ambiguous spaces occupied by a varied assortment of figures, beasts, and structures with a narrative quality. It feels like the painting is gradually telling me a wordless story, sometimes dark, sometimes light. Painting is inspiring me to paint. It is my one and only favorite mystery. I follow where it goes and sometimes it is troublesome. Sometimes it is bliss with back pain. It is something I can do which has relevance in and of itself but it is unexplainable. Words interrupt the long conversation. Images are so forgiving. If I can make a painting to be looked at and seen again and again, if I can make a painting that means something at different times and in different places, then I have made some impact in time and space. I use the cross (+) a lot, symbolizing the intersection of time and space, but as with all symbols, it represents many other things as well. This is why I paint… Descriptions of my work by fellow artists and writers: Cathie Joy utilizes a masterful command of color and composition with acrylic on wood panels and creates modern, urban paintings with an oftentimes devotional quality to them. Although unmistakably current in appearance, the imagery sometimes evokes a feeling of having come from very long ago and far away. Figures, boats, structures, and animals recur in her paintings which at first appear whimsical, but look deeper and the viewer may discover the tension and even pain within these spectral images. The multiplicity of meanings implied in these works is reflected by the alternating techniques of glazing and scraping through the paint to reveal the layers below, adding to the surface texture and at times revealing what at some point in the process was hidden. These sensitive, complex works do not scream with narrative and emotion, rather they suggest by a whisper up close, inviting the viewer to interpret a visual understanding on his or her own terms. WM. Vesneski Primal, atmospheric dreamscapes... Cathie Joy's paintings feel like directly transmitted dreams, almost like fairy tales or nursery rhymes, peaceful but discordant enough to be curious, to feel like inquiries or investigations of mystery. These paintings take me to the depths of some place where I want to stay...but a place which challenges me in some intangible way; they are worlds full of beauty, of change, of wonderment. Erica Steiner |
| CONTACT:passionofart@adacartianu.com |