Artist Patricia Zinsmeister Parker has been painting and printing for the last 5 decades. A retired professor from the University of Akron, School of Art, she makes her home in Northeastern, Ohio, U.S.A. Her studio is a 1000 sq. ft. space which will be showcased in a soon to be published book ( Artists Studios) by author E. Ashley Rooney and published by Schiffer Inc. Exhibiting in both national and international venues, her work expresses a unique visual vocabulary honed by a faithful intuition and an intellectual discipline. To quote a message from a facebook friend, David Astbury, "of all the artists I follow, you are the 'artist at large'. You make brilliant visual comments on what we all see and give it a new twist. And you are formidably self confident. Your work is utterly individualistic-as all good art is-but individualistic in the sense that it is immediately recognizable as yours-no one could do this like you do. I love seeing your work."
Patricia writes : My paintings have never really been accessible to everyone, indeed, they seem to appeal to viewers who are willing to struggle with a work of Art and/or just access it on a purely intuitive, visceral basis. It takes imagination on the part of the viewer to 'read into' visual imagery-or sometimes no imagery-
just color, since color may be content in much of contemporary art.
Painting, is for this artist, a form of therapy, a life line, a means of communicating some kind of message. Strangely enough, ( I don't always know what the message is) but still, I need to paint it! Sometimes, years after the completion of a painting, I am able to understand it in terms of what was going on at that time in my life. All art is, after all, autobiographical in nature.
It's also true that I take pride in 'taking no prisoners' when making Art-in other words, I try to strip
myself of artifice and extraneous details that interfere with my basic message. I work hard at eliminating
all the little ''tricks'' that we all (artists) know about making things look good and pretty. This is a daily challenge because I live in a very conservative part of the country and it's easy to lose ones way and fall back on gimmicks, predictability and the need to conform.
I love Happy Cow and I feel honored to be a part of the 'family'.
Patricia Zinsmeister Parker is now represented by the Sweet Art Gallery, Naples Florida. Sweet Art Gallery is located at 2054 Trade Center Way, Naples, Florida. Paintings on canvas and paper will be available. Tel. no. 239-597-2110
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