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BIO
Texas artist, Amy Tigner earned a Bachelor of Fine Art in the 1980s at the University of
Wyoming, with an emphasis in painting and had a solo exhibition while living in Japan in
the 1990s. She had a 20-year hiatus from painting while pursuing an academic career
in English Literature. Since 2006, she has been teaching English Literature at the
University of Texas, Arlington. After earning tenure in 2013, Amy began painting again,
primarily in the medium of watercolor. She has also worked with alcohol inks and
acrylics, and, most recently, she has revisited oil painting, which feels a bit like coming
home after a long journey. Since returning to painting, she has had a solo exhibition at
The Sanctuary Yoga Room in Fort Worth in 2016, and has been in several juried art
fairs, such as Grapefest, Grapevine Main Street Days, Art in the Square in Southlake,
and Artscape at the Dallas Arboretum. As an artist, she is always looking for new
techniques and ideas for paintings, creating innovative series often based in nature or
imaginary dreamscapes.
Currently, Amy lives in Grapevine, Texas with her husband, Tom, and her
ridgeback/boxer, Harper.
Feel free to contact RTown Gallery if you are interested in a commission from Amy.
You can also follow her Facebook or Instagram, @AmyTignerArt.
STATEMENT
For me, Art stands at the crossroads between observation and imagination. However,
like so much in life, Art is really a practice rather than a product. Pattabhi Jois said
about yoga, “99% practice and 1% theory,” and I think the same could be said about
Art. Practicing Art means always observing the world, perceiving its loveliness and its
cruelty, its lushness and its dearth. But it also means listening to inner voice and seeing
with the inner eye, paying attention to the dreamworld as much as the waking world.
And of course, Art requires the day-to-day practice or labor of creating the art itself,
which in my case is painting. The more I find time to paint, to do the physical work of
making paintings, the more I discover that my mind is focused on the beauty in the
world and the creativity in my subconsciousness.
In the paintings themselves, I work to produce a balance between the elegance of detail
and the looseness of abstraction. I try to find the play between control and freedom,
allowing the paint to flow where it likes but still creating art with intension. No matter the
subject matter, the painting is a dance between materials and the mind.
Because I am experimental and find Art most interesting in the discovery of new ideas
and techniques, I do not limit myself to a particular style or medium. Rather I prefer to
create various series that allow my heart and my mind to run wild with inspiration.
My river rock series, for example, works to create the visual and emotional aspects of
the river bottom. I look to the detail of rocks and botanical debris that floats in the river
and capture them in the paintings. I begin with watercolor and sometimes add acrylic
and gold leaf to create a depth of field painted on heavy watercolor paper, then mount
the paper to a cradled wood board. I finish the painting with multiple layers of clear or
tinted resin to enhance the reflective quality of the water I am representing. The effect I
hope to achieve is one of calm beauty.