Painting is inspiring me to paint.
I am a painter living and working in Portland, Oregon. My work is figurative with an abstract sensibility. It is process oriented but not for the sake of process, rather this is how I get to the imagery. I work in acrylic on wood panels and also acrylic and ballpoint pen. By holding true to all the formal aspects of composition and the visual logic within each piece I eventually realize a story via imagery. These stories don’t feel like they are mine. They are like borrowed memories remembered. For this reason I have never felt like I can take full credit for what I end up with, so I am always very grateful for the loan.
Painting is my one and only favorite mystery.
Cathie Joy Young
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Primal, atmospheric dreamscapes... Cathie Joy's paintings feel like directly transmitted dreams, almost like fairy tales or nursery rhymes, peaceful but discordant enough to be curious, to feel like inquiries or investigations of mystery. These paintings take me to the depths of some place where I want to stay...but a place which challenges me in some intangible way; they are worlds full of beauty, of change, of wonderment. *** Erica Steiner ****************************************************************************************** Cathie Joy Young creates tapestries of beautifully layered rich colors in which creatures, known and unknown, gather together. Some of them look out at you, others are sleepy or forlorn or joyful. Her original work is very fresh in its take on primitivism. The beautiful palette of rust and muted greens is intoxicating. The paintings seem always playful, but also seem to be alluding to a sort of mysterious antiquity or mythology, either real or of Cathie's creation. ***Charmagne Coe ******************************************************************************************** Cathie Joy Young utilizes a masterful command of color and composition with acrylic on wood panels to create modern, urban paintings with an oftentimes devotional quality to them. Although unmistakably current in appearance, the imagery often evokes a feeling of having come from long ago and far away. Figures, boats, structures, and animals recur in her paintings which at first appear whimsical, but look closer and the viewer may discover the depth and tension within these spectral images. The multiplicity of meanings implied in these works is reflected by the alternating techniques of glazing and scraping through the paint to reveal the layers below, adding to the surface texture and at times revealing what at some point in the process was hidden. These sensitive, complex works do not scream with narrative and emotion, rather they suggest by a whisper up close, inviting the viewer to come to a visual understanding. *******WM. Vesneski
I am a painter living and working in Portland, Oregon. My work is figurative with an abstract sensibility. It is process oriented but not for the sake of process, rather this is how I get to the imagery. I work in acrylic on wood panels and also acrylic and ballpoint pen. By holding true to all the formal aspects of composition and the visual logic within each piece I eventually realize a story via imagery. These stories don’t feel like they are mine. They are like borrowed memories remembered. For this reason I have never felt like I can take full credit for what I end up with, so I am always very grateful for the loan.
Painting is my one and only favorite mystery.
Cathie Joy Young
Sign up for mailing list
***
Primal, atmospheric dreamscapes... Cathie Joy's paintings feel like directly transmitted dreams, almost like fairy tales or nursery rhymes, peaceful but discordant enough to be curious, to feel like inquiries or investigations of mystery. These paintings take me to the depths of some place where I want to stay...but a place which challenges me in some intangible way; they are worlds full of beauty, of change, of wonderment. *** Erica Steiner ****************************************************************************************** Cathie Joy Young creates tapestries of beautifully layered rich colors in which creatures, known and unknown, gather together. Some of them look out at you, others are sleepy or forlorn or joyful. Her original work is very fresh in its take on primitivism. The beautiful palette of rust and muted greens is intoxicating. The paintings seem always playful, but also seem to be alluding to a sort of mysterious antiquity or mythology, either real or of Cathie's creation. ***Charmagne Coe ******************************************************************************************** Cathie Joy Young utilizes a masterful command of color and composition with acrylic on wood panels to create modern, urban paintings with an oftentimes devotional quality to them. Although unmistakably current in appearance, the imagery often evokes a feeling of having come from long ago and far away. Figures, boats, structures, and animals recur in her paintings which at first appear whimsical, but look closer and the viewer may discover the depth and tension within these spectral images. The multiplicity of meanings implied in these works is reflected by the alternating techniques of glazing and scraping through the paint to reveal the layers below, adding to the surface texture and at times revealing what at some point in the process was hidden. These sensitive, complex works do not scream with narrative and emotion, rather they suggest by a whisper up close, inviting the viewer to come to a visual understanding. *******WM. Vesneski
