Manawee

Oil on canvas, 36x48, Collection of Cindy Bilotti
Painted collaboratively by Cindy Bilotti and Katherine
Treffinger

Robyn Gordon (Artpropelled) responded to my 'Crow
Speaks' drawing by saying "Crow speaks to me and I
love it....a lot! Please write about your step into a new
way of expressing yourself. It reminds me of some of
the work in that amazing collaboration you did with
Cindy Bilotti."

I promised her that I would post a response. So let me try.
First let me say it was never, ever my intention to paint
abstractly. It just happened and took on a life of it's own.
At any point in my process of developing as an artist if you
were to ask me my life purpose I would respond by saying
that I was here to be a modern myth maker. I started
painting late in life and everything else in my life since 1980
has taken me in the direction of that purpose. Yet here I am
painting abstractly. Go figure.

It is my intention to move into a more story telling mode,
bringing together my figurative and abstract work. I want
to speak of the mystery, of the depths, the symbolic, of the
dream reality, but I don't want to speak directly. When Cindy
and I worked together we read a Fairy Tale and let it inform
the painting as opposed to painting the Fairy Tale. That is
what I want to do, without reading the Fairy Tale. Let the
story come to the painting and inform it. When I did 'Crow
Speaks' I let the images, the color, the strokes, the marks
come through impulse. I want to speak that language, the
language of impulse, intuition, a language beyond the
cognitive, yet something that is deeply understood. It is a
daunting task for me. I have tried and failed more than I
have succeeded. But the time is here and I am going to try
to follow the call.

I hope this answers you question Robyn.