My mind's eye sees color and shape in amazing arrangement, for this reason I desire to share my vision with the world. - T.Young
A bit about my art beginnings: I come from a folk art background and painted from 1988 through 1999 in that style. I showed and sold my works at various art shows and shops in Minnesota during those years. I co-owned a consignment gift and home decor boutique for five years in Hastings, Minnesota. I also taught community education classes and seminars for interested artists and artisans desiring to create a career in art. In 1999, I made the difficult decision to take some time off from my artistic ventures to concentrate on my personal life, which at that time was going through great change.
My new journey: In 2004, feeling more grounded that ever before, I decided to re-pursue my passion in the arts. I began studying abstract art form, for which I am deeply interested. When I looked at many abstract works I often felt drawn into the pieces. The lives and art of Artists such as Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner and Louise Fishman to name a few, became a great source of inspiration for me. I not only studied their art, but their lives as well which allowed me a personal view of the life of an artist as a profession and as person.
My development: In 2005, I started developing my current portfolio and establishing my style in traditional studio art as well as the digital medium. Acrylic paint is my first choice; I start there and often end up mixing mediums or different elements into my vision.
My working style: In 2007 I started to incorporate more digital or computerized art. This form of creativity has allowed my internal vision to go beyond the paint brush and experience art from the lens of a camera or the bed of a scanner. I find it challenging and rewarding to be limited to the addition of digital texture, color or purposely placed objects via computerized technology. I also have discovered that my creative thought process is greatly enhanced with the ability to generate this type of art because I have the pleasure to undo and redo as I feel I need to...I find no other form of art so forgiving. Although digital art will never replace my love of painting, I find incorporating this aspect of creation allows me to approach my painting process in a thoughtful and respectful way.
2008 – 2009: I started experimenting with color more than shape and wanted to paint texture with color. My vision was to create in a way that when a painting was viewed one would actually see or imagine the texture without physically touching. I developed a process of layering color upon color using only pallet and painting knives. This began my first organized body of work titled "SqUaRe". This eventually led to my body of work titled "GreY MaTTer", where I began working on exposed photo (rc) paper. I eventually added line to my color process using the movement of music as my muse. My body of work from my Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left series reflects this shift. This is also the point at which I started to become very interested in American abstract art between the years of 1945-1955. This time period saw a shift in art that really was hard to define in verbal terms; I saw this period as a definite statement about social change. For me I have this image that this was a time of being rebellious, anarchic and highly idiosyncratic. Many of the artists during this period had quite different styles that really were neither abstract nor expressionist, which intrigued me so much that I decided to study this period a bit more in depth.
2010 – Current: “It’s A New Decade” and “Another Generation 1945-1955” are two of my newest series. It’s a New Decade continues with my experimentation with the feeling of color, line and movement to create visual texture in my work. Another Generation 1945-1955 incorporates my impression of abstract art from the mid 1940’s to mid 1950’s in a manner of how I remembered seeing art of this period when I was young, and how it affects my thoughts of abstract art now. My goal in this series is to blend a past with a present and to fuse a generation of art from two different decades in two different centuries, which I feel so lucky to experience.
From here: I hope to continue my study of art and create in a way as to share what I envision with those that desire to see art from my perspective.
To view my art on the web:
www.tyoung.info
www.myspace.com/tracyolsonart
www.facebook.com/TYoungArt
www.mnartists.org/T._Young_(a.k.a._Tracy_Olson)
http://betweencreation.com/tyoung
Contact me:
startartnow@gmail.com
Artist Statement
I often create impulsively with free-form movement and thought. A subject matter or a predetermined composition is not always defined until images or shadows within the texture and colors start to appear. My work generally is indicative of how I am feeling and/or seeing at that moment. And, even though I create impulsively, it is always with clear consciousness that I communicate my thoughts and bring to the viewer of my art my perspective, the way I see and feel at that moment. For me it's a journey; for the viewer it's an experience. One that I hope will invoke conversation, thought and greater appreciation of art and the artist.
Thank you.
Hai.. T.young,
