Trudy Askew: Artist's Statement


Painting is my language. As a painter, I am interested in the emotional impact of bigger-than-life images.

I portray subjects using tropical color, or a stark black and white palette. The psychological intersection between reality and imagination is my theme. I accentuate inscrutability and contradiction, and challenge the viewer to resolve the ambiguities of truth and meaning.

When I paint, I lose all sense of time and place. I immerse myself in a canvas. I gaze at its mirror image, upside down, spun around, in different lights, in all rooms of my house. I obsess. I use acrylic paint, which is more durable than oil paint, and is a medium which permits rapid and endless revisions. When I complete the painting, it is photographed, and I stare at its image on emulsion and on the computer screen. One image leads to another; the journey never ends.