I am so Lucky to Find Such Inspiration

Finally Finished my 2 completely different skews for the upcoming Skew the Masters show.

For the diptych I titled "Transcending Matisse's Oceania" I used Matisse's cut out series as my departure point. I did have the privilege some years ago to see his work at his home on the French Riviera...what a stunning experience and inspiration.

Matisse once said:

"An artist must never be a prisoner of himself, a prisoner of a style, a prisoner of a reputation or a prisoner of success"...I can't tell you how much I resonate with this!

Transcending Matisse's Oceania by Tina ALberni Acrylic on Canvas diptych 46x40 on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

The chaos of life and turmoil always meets calm somewhere in the process of my work. I find it liberating to work with just form using an expressive language of color to bring forward my imagination and that what inspires me.

When Matisse got sick at a relatively young age, he found himself limited physically and confined to live a certain way to accommodate his ailing body.  Forced to find a new medium to work with gave birth to his cutouts series, this collage  medium he noted, was most  liberating. He could just concentrate on form and color and not worry so much about realism. In his biography he does say he found his cutouts to be his true masterpieces.

Matisse seemed to be a natural fit for me to skew. I adore his use of form and color and I too, have had to reaccommodate  my life and how I work my art, over and over, as I age along Marfan syndrome . I find artists like Matisse and Frida Kahlo to be such inspirations in my life. I shall find out one day if I succeeded with my pursuit of finding the ultimate vortex of calm vs chaos through my use of color and form!

For this skew, I just reveled particularly in his Oceania and Jazz series of cutouts.

It was only natural for me to also want to use an O'Keeffe as my departure point for a second skew.

Georgia O’Keeffe once said: 

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way... things I had no words for.” … I have things in my head that are not like what anyone taught me — shapes and ideas so near to me, so natural to my way of being and thinking.”

Since I have memory, I remember studying things with a magnifying glass. I wanted to know every detail of every thing that peaked my curiosity…I studied insects and flowers, rocks and sticks, old walls and pretty much anything with great color and texture and would be entertained for hours!.

Black Iris Metamorphosis by Tina Alberni Acrylic on Canvas 36x30, framed gallery wrapped canvas

Today, my love of form and color continues to grow, though I don’t really use a magnifying glass…I think those years of early childhood curiosity embedded memories to last me a lifetime of inspiration and never ending imagination-not to mention what inspires me daily because every day I find something that inspires me!

Natural, organic forms are my “first love”, they were the first kind of innate marks I made as a child and the ones I continued to develop for the next 35 years or so, and ones I seem to be coming back to after a brief departure.

 It wasn’t until I was in college and studied O’Keeffe that I realized how much I could resonate with another artist. I decided to challenge myself by skewing one of her images with a muted palette…my first tendency was to select the brightest colored image because I love color, but I find that stepping out of one’s comfort zone is the way to stay alive and grow. I titled this one "Black Iris Metamorphosis"

I invite you all to come see this very unique show in Charlotte, NC opening May 1, 2015 with a fun opening reception from 6-9 PM.