Michelle A. Hegyi
wild forest
March 21 – April 29, 2017
Opening Reception:
Friday, March 24, 2017, 7 – 9 pm
Artist’s Statement :
The title for this show comes from a bottle of wine my husband and I shared in Val d’Orcia in Italy last November — Bosco Selvatico — or Wild Forest — a metaphor for the everyday journey through life, beginning to end, year to year, day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute.
When I begin a piece or even a body of work, I do not know ahead of time where the work is headed. My process consists of many experiments, and the work evolves through my search.
My media include painting by hand using the computer with a pressure sensitive tablet and pen; in this show I’ve begun to spend more time painting directly on the iPad Pro using the pressure sensitive Apple Pencil, or even just using my finger. The paintings begin with me being inspired by bits of things that I notice around me, usually in nature but also in artwork, even in my own artwork, paying special attention to the color and the light. I spend a lot of time looking, taking photographs, getting inspired also by other artists’ artwork… Most of the pieces in this show were created while staying in the Bay Area of California. My artwork evolves as it is being made — the type of change may even depend on the light of day. This body of work includes experiments painting with the iPad Pro— which is a much more fluid medium than painting using my laptop computer – but I find that the computer does give you more options — I still always use Photoshop to adjust and combine many, many layers, adjusting transparencies, shadows, etc. One pro and also con of using the computer is that it allows me to experiment in my search by making hundreds of pieces with thousands of variations. Things emerge and evolve as I continue. Unexpectedly, the computer also allows for some very happy accidents!
As the work evolved, I started thinking about
What is it that exists between earth and sky?
This may be my next direction.
I believe strongly in abstraction, even though these pieces still represent my reality. I feel abstraction allows for an opening to many more interpretations so that in viewing the work each person can bring his/her own reality to the piece.
…through my artmaking I’m hoping to find those mysteriously poetic spaces that I did not know existed before…
— Michelle A. Hegyi
Technique :
Much of my work is created by hand on the computer, but has the look and feel of real paint. I paint directly on the computer using a tablet and pressure-sensitive pen. I’ve recently also done more painting on the iPad Pro using the pressure sensitive Apple Pencil. I then may pull individual paint strokes from work I’ve created with real paint by scanning the work into the computer. And in this show, I’ve also included bits of my photographs. Using Photoshop I combine all these pieces, using many different layers, with varying opacities and translucencies.
I may go through literally hundreds of iterations, as I painstakingly use the computer to adjust the composition, amount of transparency and opacity in each layer, the sharpness and the depth, and the light and the brightness and saturation and hue of each of the colors.
I print the piece myself (on archival cotton rag or Japanese paper) to be sure I’m getting the desired colors. The pieces on Japanese papers are infused with encaustic medium, and the verso is painted white giving the piece a unique luminous quality.
— Michelle A. Hegyi
Selected work by other artists
showing in this exhibition
Selected work from our WSG owner/artists, and the following visiting artists:
Elaine Headly, Jill Stefani Wagner, Marlee Hoffman, Idelle Hammond-Sass, Maria Ruggiero, Martha Rock Keller, Carlye Crisler, Kris Schmidt, Sally Hickman, Marsha Wright, Sandra Kunkle, Janet Kelman
Selected work by other artists
showing in this exhibition
