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ARTIST STATEMENT
My work stems from my innate curiosity of “thin places” where heaven meets earth, where dreams slide into waking, and where we are moved from our own stories into collective consciousness and magic. I am a self-taught watercolorist, having studied art history and later graphic design. I have been deeply inspired by the children I “taught” in a German pre-school who painted with abandon and saw creatures, faces and beings in the paint and water that they moved around on paper and cardboard. My most recent work is inspired by my spiritual practices and deity energies. Much of the work that I have created for A Provocative Synergy is the result of Dakini (female energy) Mandala meditation practices I have been exploring taught by Lama Tsultrim Allione, author of Wisdom Rising. (Written for A Provocative Synergy Show, Sprinkler Factory, Worcester, MA :: November 3 - 25, 2018) EXHIBITS
UNITED STATES
BELGIUM
GERMANY
{Recipient of Prix de la Créativité, Belgium} |
EXCERPT from Paintings of Untold Tales Exhibition Catalog
Carney Gallery, Regis College, Weston, MA Through her paintings, Pamela Esty’s takes viewers to a mysterious world of diminutive sprites and watchful snails festooned with flowers and lush plants. Equally evocative of wisdom and innocence, the sheer magic of Esty’s conception is matched by a vast quantity of meticulous detail. The paintings embrace storytelling, allegory, and memory with humor and pathos. This is a highly individualized poetic realm where eternal truths lie hidden, but they are definitely there. Esty’s approach is akin to the surrealist automatic writers. She approaches her paintings without sketching beforehand; laying paint upon paper, working from the center towards the edges, then drawing with ink to finish her pieces. “The creatures, beings, places come from my subconscious. I am fascinated by what happens with watercolor. I don’t try to control the water and paint, rather, I let it flow and with it my imagination.” In the watercolor Waking with Snails, Esty explores a private and fantastic world of dream and mystery at the moment between the subconscious and the conscious. The figure of a young girl stretches along the bottom of the picture plane. Her head rests on a pink-toned rock and a thin white arm encircles a fantastic snail. The figure is surrounded by a luxuriant profusion of ordered plants populated by small snails. The face of the young girl and the snails turn to observe the viewer. Esty says, “If you fall asleep in nature, you don’t know what is going to happen; you could wake up with something on you.” Here, the snails appear to have been drawn to the girl while she slept. As the girl begins to waken, her dream persists rather than fades. She Felt Curiously Uplifted upon Adopting a Bouffant celebrates a single woman in a moment of happiness. A central figure extends her arms wide while a cotton candy puff of red hair acts like a balloon to lift her from the ground. Pairs of trees and potted flowers lean toward her on both sides. Carefully inked lines detail the trees, flowers, and the figure. Esty returns frequently to the theme of figures carried by air or water. She says, “It’s magical to be able to float or leap physically. It is even more powerful to be lifted by spirit and emotion.” Several works follow the lives and interactions of exotic pollinators. Esty paints them as gentle creatures and shows them as solitary beings or in pairs in search of nourishing nectar and rich pollen. Reason tells us that these are small, fantasy creatures or apparitions, but our senses tell us that they are certainly real. Her work convinces the viewer that there is always something going on in nature, even when the scene appears still and silent. |