Virginia Zuelsdorf

STATEMENT BY ARTIST VIRGINIA ZUELSDORF

I guess you could call me an expressionist painter and a contemporary photographer, but you could also see my work as abstract, realist, surrealist, or expressionist, just to name a few genres present in my art. My influences include Japanese prints, Monet, Degas, Van Gogh and the Expressionists, especially the Fauves. I'm also influenced by photographers such as Man Ray and Ansel Adams and love Kandinsy and Chagall for their joyful canvases.

You’ll see what appears to be several different styles in my art shown here. I constantly chal...

STATEMENT BY ARTIST VIRGINIA ZUELSDORF

I guess you could call me an expressionist painter and a contemporary photographer, but you could also see my work as abstract, realist, surrealist, or expressionist, just to name a few genres present in my art. My influences include Japanese prints, Monet, Degas, Van Gogh and the Expressionists, especially the Fauves. I'm also influenced by photographers such as Man Ray and Ansel Adams and love Kandinsy and Chagall for their joyful canvases.

You’ll see what appears to be several different styles in my art shown here. I constantly challenge myself to find new ways of looking at things and portraying them.

I have an extensive background as a photographer (old-school, black and white silver gelatin prints), so I often use my photographic images as references for my paintings. Recently, I've become obsessed with photography again. Every day I shoot and it's the best part of my day.

I've been an artist as long as I can remember. I love to paint and I couldn't live without color.

My internationally collected art has been viewed in juried exhibitions, galleries, local art shows, and several one-woman shows. I have performed at numerous “live” painting events, in which a work of art is created before a live audience. I was a featured artist in a documentary film called "The Art of the Illuminati".

From 1998 until 2004 I worked as a scenic artist, painting anything and everything at theme parks including the Magic Kingdom, MGM Studios, Epcot and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida. That was by far the best and most adventurous job I've every had. I got to work HUGE and by that I mean ten by forty foot murals, huge sides of buildings, giant mushrooms, a forty foot tall Indiana Jones, mudflats for rhinos .... you name it!

Painting on a huge scale was very physical. I'd throw myself into the physicality of painting and dance my way across the canvas. That job taught me the value of the process and I've incorporated that into my work ever since. I believe that paintings should be done with the largest brush possible, so that the gesture is evident in my art.