ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings are not so much conceptually driven as they are process driven. I usually begin a painting by mark-making and laying in color fields and forms. Once a satisfying series of marks is laid down, I mix oil and cold wax and begin layering with texture and color. Areas of the painting can then be scraped back, revealing remnants of earlier marks, and allowing the history of the painting’s development to become visible. Initial color choices are negotiated intuitively. As the painting develops, and using a form of painterly logic that is intrinsic to the work, those choices become more and more analytical. If you look at your work long enough, it will tell you what to do. For me, painting serves as a means of wrestling with and expressing my reactions to the world at large and how those reactions come into play and impact my work.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Carol Bivins is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work can be found in private collections across the U.S. and in the United Kingdom. After spending many years living in NYC and Los Angeles and appearing in such films as Defending Your Life and Groundhog Day, she relocated to the Southwest. Needing a creative outlet propelled her to investigate drawing and painting. After working on her own for over a year, she took her first painting workshop at the Harwood Arts Center in Albuquerque. Finding that experience exciting and rewarding, she followed it by enrolling in fine art classes as the University of New Mexico. Looking for new energy, adventure and inspiration, she relocated to Colorado in 2017. Since then, her work has been juried into exhibitions from coast to coast, appeared in Artsy Magazine as part of the Minimalism Exhibition at ShockBoxx Gallery in CA and was included in the Los Angeles exhibition “photoLA 2020,” a collection of portraits of LA Artists and Others by fine art photographer Jeffrey Sklan. Most recently, she received an Honorable Mention award in the “I Love New York” exhibition at Agora Gallery in New York City.
© Carol Bivins