May 2020 Featured Artist
Award-Winning Watercolorist
Valerie Patterson
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Valerie Patterson in Front of Her Painting "Passing Through"
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Valerie Patterson is an award-winning watercolorist based in New York. She recently retired from a 34-year career teaching art.
Much of Valerie’s work focuses on art that conveys social and political messages. “I decided to use my voice to encourage people to see, think and feel – something not always valued in our culture. Awareness replaces ignorance and opens up the possibility of change. If you can’t ignore it, then you may feel compelled to change it,” she explains. Valerie’s paintings have been exhibited extensively throughout the United States in both group and solo exhibitions, including exhibitions at The Bond St. Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), The Visual Arts Center At Clarington (Ontario, Canada), The Dayton International Peace Museum (Dayton, OH), Monkdogz Urban Art (Manhattan), The Arts & Literature Laboratory (New Haven, CT), The Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center (Solomons, MD), The Foundry Arts Centre (St. Charles, MO), and The Fredericksburg Center For Creative Arts (Fredericksburg, VA). |
Her awards are numerous and include: Juror’s Award Of Excellence for the Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center National Juried Exhibition “Ebb & Flow: The Power Of Water;” several Awards Of Excellence and a Featured Artist Award from Manhattan Arts International; First Prize at The Dayton International Peace Museum for their National Juried Exhibition of Art Encouraging Peace; and the Nelda Howell Memorial Award from the Hudson Valley Art Association’s 72nd Annual National Juried Art Exhibition (Hastings-On-Hudson, NY).
Offering
© Valerie Patterson |
Arrival
© Valerie Patterson |
Valerie shares some thoughts about her work...
Your work exudes powerful messages. What typically inspires you?
I gain inspiration from almost anything, including current events (both social and political), my surroundings (museums, landmarks), news, conversations, books, movies, photos, illustrations, magazines...almost anything can trigger an idea. Usually, I need to be open and alone, in a quiet space (most of the time that means my studio) and willing to 'listen.' Very often, ideas will simply pop into my head. This has led me to believe that most of the time ideas come through me and not from me.
Your work exudes powerful messages. What typically inspires you?
I gain inspiration from almost anything, including current events (both social and political), my surroundings (museums, landmarks), news, conversations, books, movies, photos, illustrations, magazines...almost anything can trigger an idea. Usually, I need to be open and alone, in a quiet space (most of the time that means my studio) and willing to 'listen.' Very often, ideas will simply pop into my head. This has led me to believe that most of the time ideas come through me and not from me.
Attitude
© Valerie Patterson |
The World has Teeth
© Valerie Patterson |
You often use black and white with a contrasting section that is done in vivid colors for emphasis. You also utilize transparency. Can you briefly describe how you use these applications to project theme?
I use a combination of black and white areas with color, as well as figures super-imposed over a background, to represent past and present and corporeal versus spirit planes. Color areas often highlight the center of interest or importance. If Einstein was correct that ‘time is relative’ and may exist on a spiral continuum, then the past and the present all exist simultaneously. So, perhaps, all of the people that ever walked down a certain street may be doing so simultaneously. Some of my works illustrate this.
I use a combination of black and white areas with color, as well as figures super-imposed over a background, to represent past and present and corporeal versus spirit planes. Color areas often highlight the center of interest or importance. If Einstein was correct that ‘time is relative’ and may exist on a spiral continuum, then the past and the present all exist simultaneously. So, perhaps, all of the people that ever walked down a certain street may be doing so simultaneously. Some of my works illustrate this.
Time Travel
© Valerie Patterson |
Escape Attempt
© Valerie Patterson |
My Dog Sees Them
© Valerie Patterson |
Could you comment on your “Ghosts in Saranac Lake” series - the juxtaposition of present/past...transcendence of time?
This series incorporates the past with the present while highlighting Saranac Lake, NY’s unique history as a health resort/sanitarium for people suffering from tuberculosis (TB) between the 1880's and the 1950's. I started the work after I toured an abandoned, former cure cottage. While in this grand, rambling, beautiful, old building, I couldn't help but feel the presence of those who had cured there. People who, because of an illness that was often a death sentence, left family and friends to come to the Adirondacks in hope of relief and a cure facilitated by fresh mountain air. When I view old photos of the people 'taking the cure' on the local porches of former sanitariums and cure cottages, I try to imagine myself in them. I wonder how those people experienced their lives at that point. Pain, fear, discomfort, and loneliness were no doubt often present; although many TB patients survived and lived long lives. There are numerous patient stories of hope, survival and happiness. Many patients survived to describe their time 'taking the cure' in the Adirondacks as being the best time of their lives due to the tight knit community, hope and friendship. Imagine a community of people who truly knew the value of one day…one hour…one minute… |
While these images are site-specific to Saranac Lake, NY, their expression of the passage of time and human history is universal.
A Deeper Understanding
© Valerie Patterson |
Savior
© Valerie Patterson |
