Tracy Helgeson

Bright Trees

2008

View from the Train, 2019 24" X 40" x 1", oil on canvas This contemporary oil painting depicting a metropolitan view is the work of realist painter Patty Neal. The painting offers an intimate view of the city, as seen from a window, as it peeks from behind two metal structures. The dark browns and bright golds beautifully compliment the dusty blue, gray sky. Neal works highlight everyday city scenes, utilitarian infrastructure, and industrial or electrical apparatus. Artist statement: A life is an accumulation of experiences: visual, emotional and mental. By compartmentalizing these snippets of life we create boundaries. The focus of my work for many years has been the exploration of these various life aspects and how they are bound together or bound from each other. My process is often literally composed of boundaries. I make a painting by putting together multiple panels, or I segment a single panel into separate visual spaces. The works are made up of pieces or elements of city and landscape. While exploring the concepts of boundaries I play with visual “reality.” Sometimes I combine images that are upside down with those that are not and juxtapose images from different contexts. Literal boundaries, such as walls fences, expanses of water and highway median strips are also used. My intent is to invite viewers to look beyond these boundaries to see the possibilities of a connected whole. About the artist: Solo Exhibitions 2011 "Interior/Exterior", Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York 2008 ”Landscape Revisited”, 1870 Gallery, Belmont 2005 Nomad Rug Gallery, San Francisco 2004 "Landscapes"@Klein's, San Francisco 2004 "Landscape Renewed," Space 743, San Francisco 2003 Exploding Head...

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This is the silhouette of a Japanese aralia (paperplant, false castor oil plant, fatsia japonica). The big leaves have nine lobes and spread out wide. The sky is painted a pale peac...

Dancing is a metaphor for living. As long as you keep dancing, you're alive. I remember seeing something like "I'm dancing as fast as I can" or "I'm running as fast as I can" Ther...