Rita Dawley’s surrealist artwork consists of both an inner and outer life. It is an intimate portrayal of her personal journey, which she has come to recognize in the retrospect of her painting career.
"I work on paper in a narrative form," says Dawley, who lives in Uncasville, in eastern Connecticut. "There are many pictures in one painting. They appear to be exotic or tropical, but they are my everyday life. I choose to show these things -- people, trees, animals, etc. -- in bright colors and design. There is an organized chaos in my work, as there is in my life with working, raising children and grandchildren, and bringing my daily busy life into my painting."
In Dawley’s work there is a quilt effect with primitive symbols and domesticated folk images and scenes. The mood of the day or night is expressed through "emotive markings" of color and images.
Dawley’s narrative style of painting may confuse the casual observer, but there are many worlds conveyed from mind to paper which are a form of journey in itself. Emotions and moods are clearly reflected through humor, whimsy, and fantasy. Sad events are turned into something qualitatively different through the powerful intensity of bright color, and responses anticipated and evoked, stimulating the viewer’s own imagination, memories, and intuitions of story-telling, to give interpretation to each visual nugget.
Gallery curator: Johnes Ruta, (203) 387-4933, azothgallery@comcast.net.