DEE DEE VOLINSKY
Painting
After a long and storied life of trips to the Rappahannock River as a child, raft guiding on the New and Gauley Rivers, kayaking in Colorado, UVA nursing school, a happy marriage, working as a Pediatric Emergency Room nurse, and four children (including identical twins!), my winding path brought me to my final calling of being an artist.
The miracle of art dropped into my lap as a necessity: painting furniture as a way to raise money for my children's public elementary schools during a time when classroom supplies were scarce and teachers' budgets were stretched. Once hooked, I dove headfirst into self lessons, self flagellation, and thousands of hours of oil painting. Initially, I scoured art books, made many museum trips, and read as much as I could about artists. I chose contemporary master classes whose paint language truly spoke to me. I learned from contemporary masters such as Julia Menge, Peggi Kroll Roberts, Maggie Siner, Stuart Shils, Sara Packman, Campos Martin, Stanley Bielen, and most extensively, Claudia Rilling.
This self guided instruction has enabled me to see the natural world as a distillation of shapes and colors, not unlike mosaic puzzle pieces. Carefully combined, these simplified shapes of colors create an image that represents form, perspective, and light in its spectrum.
Even after 25 years of being an artist, I am ecstatic to pick up a paint brush and move pigment and oil across the canvas, enjoying the process more than the outcome. As the mosaic pieces come together, an image that is both sculptural and cohesive is formed. The result is artwork that hopefully brings the viewer as much joy as it brings me in the creation of the painting.
