Gretchen Bender Sparks Art

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acrylic/oil pastel/chalk pastel painting and ceramics

Silver Street Studios
Studio 214
(713) 444-7562
sparksgretchen@gmail.com

I am incorporating the techniques I developed doing field Geology into my art. My art comes from the result of my physical involvement with the landscape/rocks/fossils (field work) interpreted in the studio (lab work).

As an artist, I see beyond the physicality and science of the landscape - it becomes a complex and unlimited juxtaposition of texture, color, and pattern. I want to take my viewer to wherever my imagination and creativity takes me - albeit without abandoning my scientific interpretation. I want to expand my work -- to paint the narrative of the landscape.

I find spirituality in wide open and empty spaces. My work attempts to bring these places to an audience that is longing for spirituality. This includes both those who may not have access to wide open spaces, or pass through them but aren’t aware of their spirituality.

I work with photographs that I take on my travels. I love to take road trips where I stop by the roadside to take photos and pick up rocks! My goal is to combine those physical mementos with my feelings of that space, and to blend them into art that tells a story worth seeing.