About

BIO OF DENISE WEST

A CALIFORNIA BASED, FOURTH GENERATION PAINTER, DENISE WEST HAS WORKED SINCE 2015 CREATING A PRACTICE CENTERED ON HER PASSION FOR CONCEPTUAL AND INTROSPECTIVE WORK, AND FIGURATIVE AND NONOBJECTIVE ABSTRACT.

She draws inspiration from people, nature, music, mythology, subtle symbols, and archetypes that evoke momentary recognition for the viewer, and invites them to come to a personal relevance and understanding with the piece.

She works in acrylic on canvas, and explores the intimate notions of self, and the illusive, internal dialogues of her subjects and is often read allegorically.

She paints with a larger than earned element of trust, a certain rigor of logic, empathy, and vulnerability.

She likes to create at the intersection of unrelated things, and finds simpatico with innovators and inventors.

Her work is displayed in high-tech corporate interiors in the San Francisco Bay Area, in private collections, and anywhere imagination, and a certain lightness of being is needed to uplift, and inspire onlookers to feel engaged to explore more.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I like creating at the intersection of unrelated things. What interests me is the interplay of seemingly inharmonious shapes, textures, and colors. How sweeping brush stokes can snuggle-up to flat, even sterile, design based shapes to find beauty and balance. How harmony can be reached at the intersection of disharmony and deepen interest and desire. How color interplays to stimulate, draw attention, or provide peace, and how that emotional framework is navigated.

It's interesting to me to capture the moment of, and to invite the viewer to look and feel that moment and come to their own relevance and understanding with the piece.

The moment Jimi passes from our world into his.
The moment love sparks.
The moment Tena reaches tranquility in restorative repose.
The moment a bridge extends above chaos.
The moment of...
The moment of...

The moment of to me is the quantum leap, the tipping point, the avalanche, the trumpet blast, the giving way, the letting go, it is the event that initiates the conversation that freely inhabits the viewer's thoughts, arouses his senses, and connects to his experiences or imagination. It asks the questions: how does it feel the moment of? or how might that feel? or why now? what happened before? what comes after? as felt and interpreted by the viewer.

Taken as a journey, this time for me is not production, or maturity, but, discovery, experimentation, and mystery, still fresh like wet paint, and it is my hope it always remains so. The thrill is overwhelming. I’m exploring abstract art as a conceptual form, and how it intersects with the larger picture of contemporary art as a whole, and where I fit into this world as a painter.

I have a lot of questions about a lot of things, but I can say I am an unexpected painter in love with painting. That I paint with a larger than earned element of trust, a certain rigor of logic, empathy, and vulnerability. I may challenge your sensibilities, but I won’t deceive you. I won’t be dull. Painting is a palace in time for me, and if you find here rejuvenation, or repose, or simpatico, or challenge, I bid you welcome. You are the reflected light that makes me glow.

PRINTS chronology here

google selfie art

A good friend once told me that all of our paintings, whether they be paintings of our own creation, collection, curation, or simply admired -- are self-referential, or self-portraits as he called them. That art is self-expression, self-reflection, self-renewal, self-discovery, regardless of subject. I will include my fun with GOOGLE’S Selfie Art which is an exploration of this idea in its most basic sense. (You’ve got to try it.)