Betty Merken

About the Artist

Artist Statement

The nature of painting drives the meaning of my work. The interplay between the physical, sensual activity of painting and the necessary intellectual and formal decisions which present themselves creates an ongoing dialogue within each work and among the works themselves.

My newest work explores the effect of a single color and its illumination. It is inspired by observations of the manner in which light affects color, with its passing movement and changes.

I am fascinated by the power of color to convey feelings and my intention as an artist is to reflect how color can evoke emotion and contemplation, allowing the viewer to become the subject of the work.

As a non-serial abstract painter, my work can result in strikingly different moods and meanings, with each painting becoming an entire story, or world unto itself.

I am attempting to coax poetry from paint, to transform my materials into metaphor.





















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Education

Workshop in Printmaking, Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA
Bachelor of Arts, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Graduate work in Art, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME
Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC

 

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