PHYLLIS I JAFFE

About the Artist

I, Phyllis I Jaffe, cannot remember a time when I wasn't engaged in some creative activity. As a young teenager, I designed and made doll clothes for movie money. After a full career in education for the arts, teaching elementary through university levels, I moved into administration as president of a fine arts college in the midwest. Later for seven years I served as an international management consultant to developing countries, where I assisted in establishing regional arts centers in Eastern Europe and organizing new women's craft programs in Nepal and India. My professional art career has undergone a series of transformations from textile wall hangings to decorative symbolic images, abstract designs, to landscape drawings and paintings. My art work has won awards and price prizes on the east coast and midwest where I participate in group and one-women shows. I continue to paint, developing my Impressionist style while writing about my experiences. Currently I have a book about contemporary trends in iconography about completed.

Artist's Statement

“A Picture is about something:
A Painting IS something”(attributed to Jackson Pollack) Oh, how I wish I had said that. It has
guided my thinking since art school. Pollack knew: “a painting has a life of its
 own”. An artist might “copy” a painting
 to learn the craft, but it remains someone else’s creation. For a painting to be
 authentic, the artist must put everything
he knows about history, principles, craftsmanship, life and her very being into the painting. A painting must evolve
 from the uniting of these efforts to stand on its own....an experience as wrenching as sending a child to first day of school, or out into the world on its own. My paintings may suggest nature, but in my head they are challenges of a color palette, an idea, a moment in time, an experience. Something that had meaning in my life as a human being. My professional career was in education, teaching art at every level, eventually becoming President of an art college. After retiring I worked in developing countries setting up art and gallery programs, until I attended seminary. I sought to consciously merge my creative energy with my spirituality. After a life of service, my energy is now focused on being a fulltime painter, which I have continued for several years. Paintings are currently exhibited in local galleries, at large Art Fairs across the country, in New York, Sweden, Paris, and Germany. They are owned by a couple of museums, friends, and a few strangers. Their new home will be Miami My husband and I divide our time between Washington, DC, Salisbury, Maryland, family, continuing to travel and seeking new experiences. We recently fell in love with Iceland. “It is interesting that you continue to evolve and experiment. Where some artists seem to feel it’s important to do a style – their “signature” per se, you are always stretching the envelope, trying new things, going in new directions. It’s inspiring, I must say. There is a fearlessness in your work.” Kacey Cornwell, Artist, Fan Complete resume and exhibition history available from Artist. Phyllis Gillie Jaffe pjaffe@eink.net * www.pgGallery.com * SaatchiArtOnline/PhyllisJaffe * www.phyllisjaffe.artspan.com 410-742-2814