Featured Artist Marcie Rohr

Marcie Rohr’s wonderful and uplifting abstract images, interspersed with illusive natural and human elements and mystery, allow the viewer to come up with their own stories, memories and emotions. Visit her website to see more of her work.

 

 

I have been a creative spirit all my life. Some of my first memories are of drawing in the kitchen as a little girl. Interwoven with my love of art has been a love for travelling, and I have been privileged to see many corners of the globe.

 

 

Most memorably I have fallen for the country of Nepal and have become invested in the children of this nation hidden in the shadows of the mighty Himalayas. I have been awestruck by these giants, and find their peaks appearing in many of my paintings.

As a teenager I began painting and drawing intensively out of a desire to capture reality, and have since moved on towards the difficult feat of trying to capture the intangible. Of course, everyone likes mountains and flowers and trees. It is a beautiful thing that humans still draw such strength from symbols of the natural world. I love to paint them because they resonate with people.

 

 

But what about epiphanies? Everyone loves a good epiphany, but concepts like this are much harder to capture as an artist. My goal is to create work with elements of life that people can integrate with a memory or experience of their own, but with aspects of the intangible to process as well. I find a degree of mystery is always intriguing.

 

 

In the effort to try to express these intangible feelings and epiphanies, I have pursued experiences in painting that have nothing much to do with technique, and more to do with my spiritual person.

 

 

I am primarily interested in transferring a positive and uplifting emotion through my work. I refuse to believe that “happy” art is less valuable than one born out of a tangled mess of passion and despair— lands I visit occasionally as we all do, but don’t need to linger in.

 

 

Therefore, I surround myself in my studio with positive and uplifting messages, songs, and photos of my life that remind me of the things I love. I listen to audio books on meditation or worship while I am painting. I pay attention to my breath and sometimes simply try to observe the strokes I am making in that moment. I try not think about anything else, remaining in the present tense.

 

 

I ardently believe that art has a largely untapped capacity to change lives for the better—I have seen many times with my own eyes how a simple creation brings light into the eyes of a child and fosters their confidence in so many other areas of their life. This is my real goal: to share my passion with those who are marginalized and vulnerable, and to marry my work with issues of justice that I am passionate about.

 

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