ABOUT THE ARTIST
My life has taken many twists and turns but one thing that has remained constant from the time I was ten years old, mesmerized by a book of Degas’ sketches, is my love of art. I studied art as part of my undergraduate work and went on to teach and do social work. Later, I completed master’s degrees in art education from Central Connecticut State University and in visual communication from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I then worked for many years as a graphic artist. But until my daughter went off to college and I moved to North Carolina, I had little time to devote to my own art. I’d painted and drawn before but without much purpose. Suddenly I had the time, a whole room to set up for creating artwork, and a need to express myself and leave behind a body of artwork. Doing so has been fulfilling and life expanding for me.
Shown in this exhibit are two ongoing series: Introspections and Sea Abstractions
In Introspections I combine my oil painting, photography, ink, and charcoal. Each piece is about a specific experience or relationship, and the roses in them, which I damage in some way (burning, sewing, pinning down, etc.) and then photograph, show how life has affected me. The statue images (which I took many years ago in Paris) and the photos of me when I was young represent feelings and memories. The black bird in each piece represents trouble, difficulty. What I’m trying to show is that we (I and most people) go through a lot in life—disappointment, loss, regret, aging etc.—and all of that shapes us. But, if they don’t destroy us, life’s trials can make us more interesting, more empathetic, and altered yet still beautiful.
The Japanese have a practice called “kintsugi” in which broken pottery is mended with gold. The broken areas of the pot are obvious, but the repair makes the damage a new source of wonder and admiration. I hope in this artwork to be creating my own form of kintsugi.
My newer series, Sea Abstractions, is (thus far) oil on paper paintings and is based on my connections with the sea. When I moved to North Carolina I didn’t know a soul here. I found the vast, incredible sea and walks along the beach to be extremely helpful. I love the sea. It can be calming, restorative, invigorating. It can also be as moody as a person. In these paintings I tapped into the seas of my imagination. The single boat in each piece brings in a human element and shows some of the many ways we can experience the sea. It is my hope that this artwork will spark the viewer’s own subconscious and personal connections with the sea.
– Rose Arciero
https://rosearciero.com/