Donna W. Radcliffe
Many Days Gone
Artist Statement
“I have always found my spiritual balance while creating. Whether through music or painting the rules were similar and the outcome sure....Peace.”
My work is a reflection of my interactions with the world around me. It’s ideas represent the past, in the form of relationships and community, the present as I experience the earth through nature, and the future as the spirit of it all. That spirit I seek contains the ideas of dreams, visions and imaginings of a hopeful life, free, unbound and transcendent.
I tend to work through reflections of something for a specific period of time. A thematic approach helps me work through what I'm trying to say, or to complete a thought, or tell a story. The subjects I choose have their own reflections, so I select a medium which seems to project the “feelings” I have, not necessarily those which help me make markings for a likeness. Sometimes my paintings are highly textured, imperfect or rough to go with an unbridled subject, free, natural. Sometimes the portrayal is very precise or tailored, to create the image of something that needs to be understood exactly, representational. In those times, I may use a pure material, in a simple way, to bring forth clarity. You see?
I’ve been told that my nature themes which are highly textured have a breathless quality at the same time. My relation to them is loosely based on the connection I feel to the universe. The dichotomy is the reality verses the dream, the fact verses the feeling and the form verses the space. Communing with nature through art has a nostalgic feeling from my history. But, it also evokes this very spiritual response. Depending on the day I create something, the entire painting may have become a prayer for me. Within it, I’m trying to "say something" that will remove me from the details and involve my soul in the experience of it’s muse. In those times and to truly reach another level, the spirit of what I'm saying has to be more pronounced than the technique. My art is an invitation and I hope you will join me.
Donna W. Radcliffe
