Marti Higgins
Artist Statement
My artwork is about the emotional, evocative and relativity of color or most importantly how colors influence each other by proximity. Color and shape relationships created by a layer and reveal technique become noticeable and provide backbone and grounding. Through intentional attention to visual rhythm, color and shape elements begin to show up as glimmers and slices. With the additions of surprise or seemingly incongruous colors, exciting effects are created.
The heart of my subject matter are observations of the dualities found in nature. Fascination with the contrast of simple and complicated lines in the branches of trees, a familiar scene continually changing with the seasons, shapes of large fields or studies of leaves on the ground fuel my compositions. Inspiration comes from the sense of disorder, yet perfect organization, I find in nature and in real life. My mediums are acrylic on canvas, collage and encaustic.
I work intuitively, meaning I make decisions as I go without a lot of planning, using my own references. I pay attention and record spatial and color relationships between objects, such as where things touch or separate. To create more intense photo references, I use filters to create unique color combinations and compositional distortions. I use these edited images as sketchbook and thumbnails for compositions.