untitled 21-0408
Mixed media on canvas
Art Dimensions: 30" x 48"
Exhibition - Depth: Layers in Translation
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Artist Biography
A writer turned visual artist, Portland painter Thérèse Murdza began drawing big words on giant rolls of paper in 1998. Using an evolving and animated range of circles, lines, and colors, she continued her work onto stretched canvas in 2001, eventually building her now signature bright, richly textured paintings on large, sometimes multi-paneled works on canvas, and smaller paintings on canvas and paper. From her studio in Portland, Oregon, she partners with gallerists, design professionals, and private collectors to place her artwork nationwide.
Artist Statement
"Before I could tie my own shoes, I played a small accordion. I studied piano, saxophone, then jazz and music theory at a Maryland public high school. In college, I studied theater performance, learning new forms of materializing sounds in transitory space. I acted, directed, and wrote poetry and plays. After graduation I distilled my writing further, in search of the precise moments of emotion and of contact. Not narrating the beginnings and ends, but middles; the being in the middle of things.
Years spent living up and down the east coast had me drawing on big paper and literally taking the words apart. Disintegrating the shapes of the words into lines, circles, squares and color. Seeing music, hearing words, somehow marking sound in charcoal, ink, pencil, and then: paint.
Since 2000, I've worked almost exclusively on hand-stretched canvas, in turns building large, sometimes multi-paneled works on canvas, and smaller works on canvas and paper. From my studio in Portland, Oregon, I partner with gallerists, design professionals, and private collectors to place my paintings nationwide, including with those in the great state of Iowa."
