Artist Statement

I’m inspired by the patterns and rhythms of life, and I create using color, movement and an intuitive approach to building compositions. I draw upon my formal training in art, design and dance in my work and allow these disciplines to inform my decisions in all media.

Improvisation is a key piece of my creative process. When I start a piece, I usually have just a nugget of inspiration – a color I saw that I can’t get out of my head, a pattern I observed in a leaf or a gesture of the body that caught my attention – and I feel a surge of energy to do something with that. It’s just enough to get me started and moving in a direction. I lay down my first impulse and then I leave it alone. When I return to it in the next session, I look at what I did and respond afresh. I do this repeatedly and slowly build the work, improvising with my own work from one day to the next and using all the tools available to me from my training, life experience and cultural perspective.

I enjoy the journey of discovery, pushing myself to look at my subjects from many different angles and experimenting with materials to find new ways of expressing what I find most interesting about them. I’m drawn to botanicals and the human figure as the primary subjects of my work; their forms, movement and interaction with the invisible forces of gravity, time and energy give me so much to think about and explore.  

Bio

Naomi was raised in a family full of creative people, her earliest memories include making (and being encouraged to make) beautiful things any way she could. Childhood was a rich time of life that included lots of coloring, community theater, dance classes, talent competitions, school musicals, student art exhibitions, sewing and watching both of her parents pursue creative businesses out of their home.

In 2006, she earned her BFA from the University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point in Art & Design with a minor in Dance, exhibiting and performing throughout her time there. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

In her professional career, she has worked in web design, graphic design, dance performance and teaching and selling paintings she exhibits and through commissions. She can never just be working in one creative discipline and finds that each one feeds off of and into the others. When her work is at its best, (whether it's illustration, design, choreography, painting etc.) it is playful, colorful and intricate. Naomi's love of color, natural patterns and drama shines through in her work. Her sensitive observation of detail and pattern in natural subjects consistently draws viewers in for a closer look. She has exhibited in the Pacific Northwest and Upper Midwest, completing many original works and commissioned pieces.

She shares a big yellow house with her forester husband, Clark, in Duluth.