amyzimmermanart

"You're My Blue Sky" 2006 acrylic on canvas

AmyZimmermanArtist Statement

What’s your favorite color?

   Most people can answer this question automatically. Not me. That’s serious business. Color is my life, how could I limit my choice to just one?

   I consider color to be the most impactful, subjective element to my artwork. Van Gogh once said “Instead of trying to render what I see before me, I use color in a completely arbitrary way to express myself powerfully”. I’ve always been compelled to create this way. My paintings and illustrations always stuck out like a sore thumb in art school critiques. It was only after I studied the Fauves with their pure, bright colors straight from the tube that I realized I am not alone.  

   I have loved creating art my entire life, the earliest memories are from pre-school. Working with children during my college years showed me that art is my lifelong commitment. Many of my most significant artistic expressions occurred at an elementary school table with Crayola markers on butcher paper. A childlike approach to imagery still resonates in my work.

   My art education has taught me alternate and more sophisticated ways of expressing myself, and while I have grown to appreciate nuance and subtlety in value and perspective, I still prefer to boldly experiment with composition and color. Instead of painting images from life, I paint life from my imagination. Acrylics, watercolors and inks are my imediums of choice, though I have discovered bliss in surface design and collage with fiber, and recently created my first “painting” on a kiln fired ceramic bowl. More to come.

   Matisse dreamed of  “an art devoid of troubling, depressing subject matter”. I, for one, am doing my part.

Happenings

April 4, 2008

• UCO Senior Art Show: The Theory of Everything
• OKC Omniplex museum, 6pm
• exhibits thru May31

August, 2007

• featured artist, OKC publication NONzine
• painting "Blow Up Your TV" on cover

July 13-14, 2007

• festival exhibit, Midsummer Night's Fair
• sponsored by the Firehouse Arts Center, Norman

May 19, 2007

• festival exhibit, Edmond Art Market
• featured as "Spotlight Artist"

May 4-6, 2007

• 1st festival exhibit, MAYFAIR, Norman
• feature interview on front page of Norman Transcript, opening day
• painting "Flowers in the Window" on front page

April 28, 2007

• painting "3 Together, 4 Each Other" exhibited on OETA show OKC Metro

February 28, 2007

• named "Best Local Artist" in Norman Transcript's 2007 Readers' Choice Awards

January-April, 2007

• solo exhibit, Legacy Bank, Edmond, Ok.
• 2nd featured artist in their "ArtMatters" program

October 13, 2006

• 1st art exhibit
• group show, ArtHouse Gallery, OKC
• thru December 31