Artist statement 2021
I
once tried not to be an artist. And I failed. I need to paint or draw a
work of art every single day. It is necessary for me to attend to this
passion, or I will start to wither, wane, dissolve, rage, flip out and
disappear. Through a strict daily process and discipline, I have found a
voice for the wordless stuff inside me. I am able to arrest time and
capture memories and make fleeting juxtapositions that feel like
celebrations to enlighten and transform. Afterwards, my thousands of
paintings and drawing become portals leading beyond our linear construct
of time and space.
When
I was about 6 years old, I watched Sandy Calder, the sculptor and
neighbor of my grandmother in France, “work” in his studio. I knew he
was living a magical life as a grown up. I wanted to live like him. My
childhood as a military brat, had me moving from place to place and it
rattled my shy vocabulary, until painting became my most useful and
important language.
My
studio is full of wet panels, stacks of painted papers, empty frames,
found nests, brilliant flowers, eggs, miniature chairs, maps, and
teacups. Looking about, I see a vocabulary of images that make a virtual
dictionary of metaphors for my journey through this life.
Because
I feel transient as a species and have lived a life of constant
relocation and movement, the perpetual conflict between leaving and
being is evident everywhere in my work. I don’t feel that I have time to
get fussy about my narratives, or my process. I just do my best to show
up. A key can be the ritual of arriving, donning the apron, and
choosing the subject. Each image freezes a moment that I can physically
carry with me.
Leaving
or staying is a constant question. I emphasize the duplicity of focus
when laying bare the anxieties of our time by using a whimsical palette,
some playful brushwork and the very lightness of imagery. Brushstrokes,
text, and details from nature are strategies I explore in transforming
the paint to be memory and harvesting the spiritual to be paint.
Bio of Tilly Strauss
Rural NY painter, historian, teacher, traveler
Mother, daughter, sister, friend…
Having
been a painter her whole life, (she exhibited in her first show at age
5), Tilly Strauss loves history and teaching the process of painting to
others. She studied art under her uncles and aunts and earned a BFA and
BA from Colorado University in Boulder. A widely recognized artist from
the northeast, Strauss has exhibited consistently for several decades.
Since living in Miami, she has exhibited and won awards with her work at
the Deering Estate, the South Florida Art Center, with the Miami
Parking Authority in Wynwood, at the Miami International University of
Art and Design, and at the Miami Dade Public Library as well as at the
Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, the Akin Museum in Pawling NY and the
Hammond Museum in North Salem.
Since
2006, Strauss has been a daily painter, living with a strict routine of
artmaking. She often paints in public and always keeps a sketchbook
with her. Convinced she is one of the fastest painters she knows, she
was thrilled to learn that her great (x15) grandfather, Lucas Cranach,
was also known for his speed. He was known in the 1400’s as the “Pictor
Celerimus”, which translates into the “fast painter”.
Strauss
has been teaching art to kids and adults for the last 25 years. It is
one of her main joys in life. She spent three months of the fall of 2020
teaching art history and watercolor in Zermatt, Switzerland and
currently runs a summer enrichment camp for young kids in Millerton NY.
Facebook- Tilly Strauss
Instagram- tilly strauss
Dixie Intersection,
acrylic on canvas
16 x 20
$1200
Airport (Landing) Shot, acrylic on paper
7 x 5 inches
$200
Bring Me Home, acrylic on paper
7 x 5 inches
$200
Exit North,
acrylic on canvas
16 x 20
$1200
New Adventures,
acrylic on paper
8 ½ x 6 inches
$200
Over Hill and Dale,
acrylic on paper
7 x 5 inches
$200
