Coast to Coast and In Between: The Question

To further introduce the people behind the paintings in our upcoming show Coast to Coast and in Between, opening Friday, January 15, we posed the following question to the show's four nationally exhibiting artists:

How does living in your particular metropolitan area influence your painting style or subject matter?

From Sallie Benton, New York...

"Surrounded by tall buildings, an ever constant cacophony of noise and movement, I live in a crowded town that never sleeps, New York City. My studio faces east, making the buildings black against the morning sky, their colors, forms and moods changing with the light. Light is my subject, the figure my object, which, when placed before a window with the ever changing shapes behind, becomes a metaphor for stillness."

From Tjasa Owen, San Francisco...

"Living in the Bay Area keeps me around water all the time. I chose to move here 15 years ago for many reasons but a couple of them being the weather that keeps me outdoors daily and the constant access to the views of the water. I cross the Golden Gate Bridge every day and am in awe of the Pacific Ocean and the Bay which all of us live around and treasure. San Francisco is a city, but it feels like a town. It is approachable, sophisticated and full of the greatest light. Every day I can see the horizon line around me and breathe in the sky and the ocean. I am blessed for that. I can paint in the studio, head downtown to see an exhibition and wrap up my afternoon with a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and a hike in the Marin mountains. My studio is blocks from the ocean. I paint indoors but every time I am outside, I capture a feeling that I want to express on canvas. We live within an hour of the wine country where I find inspiration for my fields, trees and rolling hills. I love the east and west coasts for many of the same reasons and both influence me immensely. I love the history and rugged coastline of the east coast where I grew up and I love the open and wildness of the west coast where I have settled."

From Tim Kennedy, Indiana...

"Here are a few things that come to mind regarding 'place.' In general, I suppose I feel a bit 'dis' placed. I have moved around quite a bit throughout my life. As a child I grew up in Michigan, so I was familiar with life in the Midwest when I returned here after living for fourteen years in New York. In some ways I still feel like a stranger in Bloomington – I get lost on short drives outside of town. We have the New York Times delivered, but sadly, only buy the local paper periodically. The one thing that identifies the Midwest for me is living in a survey township – a feature that is common to Michigan as well. I suppose our 'place' is our home, which I think of as an Edenic space. None of the watercolors that I am including in the show were done in Indiana, but instead were done in Florence and northern Michigan last summer. They are both places close to my heart. I have made seven trips to Italy over the past twenty-five years and have spent extended time in Florence on five occasions, so I know Florence pretty well. I painted some of the places around Florence I love best with a special emphasis on views that included sculpture – which was a sneaky way to get the figure into a number of the paintings. Michigan represents a kind of ideal wildness to me. It is all air, water and sand."

From Susan Hong-Sammons, Chicago...

"Living with Chicago weather greatly effects my subject matter. I paint mostly from life, from direct observation so anything I see is a potential subject matter. I prefer not to paint in my studio and venture out of doors but during the winter this time can become greatly reduced because of the cold. This past fall I had two experiences that curbed my plein air (painting outdoors) appetite, one was a bunch of yahoos shooting a gun near me. But the snow is falling in thick flakes and I've new arctic boots so I'm ready to hit the streets of Chicago and cafes once again."