Cynthia Goodman Brantley

During my life as an artist, I spent 30 years drawing and painting women. I used images of women to express my experience of the world. I work from a symbolist perspective, which attempts to reconcile the antithetical ideas of science and the spiritual through art.

In the 1990’s I transitioned from women- to drawing and painting natural objects. I started with sticks and thorns, then painted cones and sharp objects, which were not taken directly from nature. Due to my lack of mathematical knowledge, I call this work: Faux Geometry.

I continue to use nature in my work, but now am using more of the colors, rather than the forms themselves. I am currently interested in the interplay of color and geometric shapes. In the work I present a juxta-positioning of the atmospheric with concrete forms. Many of the influences for my color shifts appear in nature. The subtle color changes and luminosity of the sky at sunset is a daily influence for me. Color has become increasing important in my work over the years. I use forms emitting or compressing color, trying to achieve subtle changes of color over the plane of a drawing or painting.

I have done drawings and paintings in recent years gathered under the title of “Invisible Loom” accompanied by a descriptive designation: “Invisible Loom: Orange Tie,” etc. They are related to the geometric work, but do not necessarily contain geometric forms, however, some of them do contain rounded lines, connected to a geometric shape. I hesitate to label the linear parts of my work as anything specific, because at times they seem more like thread and sometimes more like wire.

My ambition as an artist is to remain as true as I can to my personal vision, with this in mind, departures from what might be called one particular style, often crop up. However, my art began and remains a distillation of my life experiences and perceptions. Whenever possible I prefer to allow my work speak for itself

Submitted by InLiquid