Art Exhibit: “Dreamscapes” with Ruth Lieberherr (5/12 till 8/22/18)

ARTIST STATEMENT

Remembered landscapes, people, feelings, find a new, dream-like reality in my work. I start either with developing images out of color on canvas, without a premeditated concept, or doodling on paper and transforming the doodles into grisaille (gray scale) underpaintings. Adding many washes of transparent paint, images emerge from a deeper level of consciousness, evolving into archetypes. From the fluid feeling of paint on canvas or on paper, I go where the inspiration of the colors leads me. Influenced by the ideas of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, I explore the character and expressions of the different colors. The artwork grows out of the act of painting in a metamorphosis of form and color through its various layers. Most often I don’t  like to keep the images abstract, but human figures, animals, images from nature start to emerge. My life experiences and preferences sneak into my paintings along with the archetypal images. Whimsical figures, faces, real and fantasy creatures inhabit my artwork. From growing up in Switzerland to dancing with my liturgical dance group “Skyloom”, from reading fairy tales to walking among elephants in Ghana, from the mundane to the exotic and spiritual, my experiences find new expression in my “Dreamscape” paintings. They invite the viewers to explore and expand their own imagination.

I have also  illustrated  several picture books: Winter, Awake!, written by Linda Kroll, Journey to Inner Space, written by Deborah Cohen, The Knottles, written by Nancy Mellon, Hafez, The Mathematical Stonecutter, written by Michael Punzak, and just last year: By Some Great Spell, written by Mary Beth Melton.

For more information visit my website www.RuthLieberherr.com.