g. a. Sheller

Over several decades, g. a. Sheller has not only been a prominent figure in the western New York art scene as fine artist, teacher and innovator, she has also offered instruction in her multi-media processes in workshops around the world. A highly skilled watercolorist, her recent work unites her love of painting with her love of photography. By combining watercolor paint with light sensitive gum dichromate, the artist adds texture, pattern and luminescence to the otherwise flat watercolor image.

Using the computer and the press, she combines painted images, photographs and collaged items to create layered images that are more evocative of something remembered or imagined than of something seen. Sheller's art is, thus, an art of juxtaposition or overlay.

It may, for example, be a juxtaposition of specific aspects of a landscape, such that we gain a greater sense of the whole landscape than we would through any single perspective. It may, on the other hand, be a juxtaposition or overlay of images which resonate by association, much in the way that memory works. Then again it may be a juxtaposition of styles and patterns, of differences in scale or perspective, or of real things and artifacts. The effect is that each image, be it landscape or still life or some combination of both, is not a direct visual representation but a conjunction of personal associations. The result is a sense of something much greater than the sum of its parts: a feeling, a remembrance, or an idea.

In the words of the artist: "My paintings are not the direct illustration of landscape or plant forms, but are the expression of a realm of feeling derived from the reaction to the landscape. It is a transmission of personal and private emotions that are derived from the imagery. The color and passages of paint have their source in the artist, not the place observed."