Painting is a creative form of meditation that quiets my mind, a place where chatter and din cease, and clarity enters.
The first time I picked up a paint brush, other than for home maintenance, was in the mid 90s. A friend gave me a magazine photo of Kandinsky’s early work, The Blue Mountain. I decided to try reproducing it. I gathered supplies and commenced painting well into the wee hours, completely losing track of time. Painting became a meditative process for me. That first painting still hangs in my home today.
My home is my gallery, with paintings by many of my favorite artists. If I could, I’d live in the modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. A guiding principle I follow is to decorate a room around a piece of art. Another is the Bauhaus aesthetic: form follows function.
In 2015, following the completion of renovations on my Illinois home, I left teaching and moved to Door County, Wisconsin. After renovating another home, apartment, and a cottage, I’ve returned to painting. For me, painting flows from joy. I love modern, abstract, and contemporary art as wonderful means of creative expression. Representational imagery painting also makes my heart sing. A friend laughs that I’m happiest with sawdust in my hair (the remnants of home renovation projects) – now my creativity shows itself in the paint under my fingernails.
Some of my favorite artists include:
- My mom, the late Geri Padzensky,
- James Howell,
- Harry Mintz,
- Iris Allen,
- Wassily Kandinsky,
- Curt Frankenstein,
- Heather Hancock,
- Gerhard Richter,
- Alexa Meade, and
- Terry Lundahl
