SHELLEY FEINERMAN

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Born and raised in NYC, I raised a son, and taught special needs children for the NYC Department of Education for 22 years, all the while pursuing my career as a visual artist. I have been a practicing visual artist for 50 years, earning an MFA from Brooklyn College in 1978.

 My paintings are a celebration of color, simplified shapes, and a shallow depth of field. I paint in acrylic on linen, board, and paper and sometimes incorporate, spray paint, stenciling, charcoal, glitter, fabric, and pastel. Light is created with color and imagination.  Painting for me is an exploration of life’s potential: an observation of the inexplicable that can be found in all the peculiarities of the world.   My intention is that those viewing these paintings will recognize that the work is true and believable — not merely beautiful, but also intelligent.

I am also a film maker, producing a full-length documentary, Through a Blue Window, that was an official selection of the New Film Makers NY  2020. 

January 2021, in year two of the pandemic, I had back surgery and I knew, even before the operation that continuing to be creative would be essential to the healing process so, from my bed, I filled page after page of chapbooks with watercolor sketches of women. Months later back in front of my easel once again, my interest in a woman’s body continued and it’s what I present here..