Artist statement
The work on this site includes my MFA thesis work as well as the work I have done since then and currently am making. It also includes some work done by students that I have had the opportunity to work with.
Artist Statement
In my drawing process, I use mainly subtractive drawing methods with a primary interest in charcoal and scratchboard. Weather events, early memories and immersion in nature have informed the current works. My lifelong interest in weather, energy and the movement of air has found its way into these drawings and the current paintings. Impending weather has also become somewhat of a visual metaphor in these turbulent times.
My MFA thesis work of 2016-2018, builds on the long traditions of the human figure and domestic interiors. This work embraces the balance between comfortable and uncomfortable quiet, solitude, and the simultaneity of harmony and discord. In this work, I explore the emotional potency of presence, absence and isolation with figures, color, pattern and the occupation or emptiness of space.
I am interested in engaging all 5 senses while showing an impression or glimpse into a room. Using simplification or suggestion of form in concert with the falling and laying of light has a long history. I am working with this idea of an optical, emotional, and auditory impression of a space before the eye and mind can take in all of the information and put it in order.
This thesis work explores emotion, vision and sound visually thru the use of pattern, color and composition. Literary influences of traditional Haiku and American writers Raymond Carver and Sam Shepherd inform the visual terms of compositional narrative, tone and color.
Paddy grew up in a family with a long history of visual art, craft and decoration that informs her work. Interior decorating, clothes construction, theater, decorative painting and historic renovation, are resources that support these narratives.
Bio
Reared in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Paddy began drawing and painting at an early age. She grew up in a family with a long history of visual art, craft and decoration that informs her work.
She earned her MFA in Painting and Drawing at the University of New Hampshire and BFA in Painting and K-12 Art teacher State certification from WMU. Paddy has taught as adjunct instructor at University of New Hampshire and WMU as well as a high school Art teacher in Maine. She has recently returned to Michigan and currently teaches at the Gwen Frostic School of Art, Hackett Catholic Prep and as a Teaching Artist for Education for the Arts.
CV
Education
Masters of Fine Art, Painting , University of New Hampshire 2018
Landscape as Narrative, Vera Iliatova, Oxbow School of Art, August 2015
Sandglass Theater Summer Intensive, Puppetry Training 2014
Aesthetic Education Training June 2013
Western Michigan University, Teacher Certification 2003 Major: Art Education
Bachelor of Fine Art, Magna Cum Laude, 1993 Major: PaintingSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago, Advanced Painting 1992
Oxbow School of Art, Advanced Painting 1992,1993
Kendall School of Design. Grand Rapids, MI 1982-83
Exhibitions
Faculty Review, Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Kalamazoo, MI 2022
Montserrat School of Art, Instuctor Exhibition, 2020
MFA Exhibition, UNH April13, 2018
Graduate Drawing Show, Alcove Gallery, University of New Hampshire 2017
Art Prize, Grand Rapids, Michigan 2016
Faculty Show, Richmond Center for Visual Art, Western Michigan University 2015
Advanced Painting Group Show, Oxbow School of Art 2015Shadow Theater and Dance Collaboration, Cori Terry and Ritsu Katsumata 1015
Faculty Show, Richmond Center for Visual Art, Western Michigan University 2014
Puppetry Showcase, Sandglass Theater Intensive 2014
Star Building Group Show, Art Hop 2010
International Women’s Show, Flat Iron Building Chicago, IL. 1996
Root Witch, shadow puppet theater performances:
Waldron Art Center Bloomington, IN
Common Ground Theater Louisville, KY 1994
B.F.A. Exhibition Paintings, drawings, puppetry, Western Michigan University 1993
Group Show, Oxbow School of Art 1992
Carnival of Art I&II East Hall, Western Michigan University 1992-93
Annual Student Exhibition, Western Michigan University 1992
Kalamazoo Area Show, Kalamazoo Institute of Art 1992
Awards
Art in the Sky, Shamrock Celebration,Teaching Fund Grant Hackett Catholic Prep
Professional Development Grant: Ox-Bow 2015
KRESA / Education for the Arts
Frostic School of Art, Western Michigan University
Professional Development Grant: Sand Glass Theater, Vermont 2014
KRESA/Education for the Arts
Kalamazoo Community Foundation, Women’s Education Coalition Grant 2002, 2003
The following are awarded through the Art Department of Western Michigan University
100 Bridges, One Hundred years Top Alumni Award 2003
Walter F. Enz Award 1992
Presidential Scholar 1992
Oxbow Scholarship 1992
Art Star-Painting 1991
Merit Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1991
Department of Art, Enrichment Grants 1991-1993
Dean’s List 1991-1993
Painting Untold Stories published for departmental brochure 1993
Teaching
Visual Arts Instructor, Hackett Prep, Kalamazoo, MI 2020-
Education for the Arts, Teaching Artist 2013-
Kalamazoo Institute of Art Drawing Instructor 2021-
Visual Arts Instructor, Maine Central Institute, Pittsfield, ME 2018-2020 Adjunct Instructor, Introductory Drawing, University of New Hampshire, Spring 2018
Private Art Tutor, College admission portfolio development 2014-16
Adjunct Instructor, Two Dimensional Design, Frostic School of Art,
Western Michigan University 2013-16
Teaching Artist, Education for the Arts-Aesthetic Education/Arts Initiative 2013-16
Art Instructor, Gull Lake Gateway Alternative High School 2013-16
Mural Painting, Allegan Alternative High School 2015-16
Recruitment/Portfolio Review, Western Michigan University 2015-16
Puppetry Residency, Portage Northern Middle School 2015
Painting co-teaching with Conrad Kaufman Kalamazoo Institute of Art 2005
Substitute Teaching Kalamazoo Public Schools 2003-2004
Teaching Internship Kalamazoo Public Schools
Lincoln International Studies School,
Kalamazoo Central 2003
Pre-Internship Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts 2002
Oxbow School of Art, Puppetry teaching Assistant Blair Thomas 1994
Gila Community College, Globe, AZ. Puppets and Performance workshop 1994
Freelance
Interior Design/ Color Consultant
Purple Martin mural, private residence 2015
Peace Jam mural 2003
Dining Hall Murals, Western Michigan University, 2007
Jeff Bernstein Exhibitions:
Salt of the Earth, Healer Within, Michigan Space Center-Mars Rover 1998-2003
Armstrong International:
Business Culture Project 1998-2003
Red Moon Theater, Chicago, IL. puppet and set builder 1996
