Meredith Fife Day
 

Statement

PAINTING

I paint in oil on panel and canvas. When a more portable medium makes sense, I paint in watercolor. From time to time I experiment with the opaque, vivid colors of gouache and flashe.

Working from still life and landscape – often including both in a window view of urban and garden images – I am naturally interested in what the world looks like. Yet I want my paintings to be more than representation and identification of the observed world. I want my work to reflect deep and long-nurtured joy in response to the experience of seeing. If emotional presence precludes description, I accept the choice as one of authenticity and expression over correctness. I have learned through years of study and work that we see with more than our eyes. Our memories, cultural heritage, imagination, desires and dreams, our mind, emotions and inner life, and the lessons of our masters all contribute to the way we see. Experience and imagination give us ways of seeing that are often unpredictable and, for me, inexplicable.


COLLAGE

About five years ago, I realized that my delight in color's rich possibilities was causing me to be impatient with drawings and studies I made for paintings. Longing to work things out in color, I began to cut and tear pieces of wallpaper and images apart, then piece them together again for my "drawing". I painted into the assembled fragments to further make my way through the work, and the results seemed to fit with my perception. The process began to feel like a stage of childhood I remembered clearly, when the world of colors and shapes was connected with things around me in an infinitely inviting way. At my age, feeling like a child and seeing the world renewed with each blink of the eye became more wondrous than just about anything I could imagine.

Motivated by anticipation of discovery, I gave intuition free rein. I realized I had studied, analyzed, thought and tried hard for long enough to have internalized my practices and cognitive intent. I wanted to be surprised. The conscious reconsideration of everything I had learned and worked to master was proving restrictive, while intuitive use of the very same knowledge promised to set me free. Who would not choose freedom?

Releasing the process from conscious control has meant, for me, seeking unity with the rhythms of the observed and affective worlds. When I get them honest and right, these rhythms translate into form and lend it energy. A life force is unleashed, redefining the essential struggle of expression in terms of joy, benevolence and affection.


DIALOGUE

Process and meaning are closely connected in my work. In the last few years of moving back and forth between painting and collage, I have become aware of a dialogue developing between the two. When I am painting and need help in understanding what I see, I turn to collage, using torn, cut and painted paper as a means of making studies. This process never fails to serve up a few surprises, turning my preconception about the observed world on its head and releasing the painting-collage dialogue from my learned response. Without compromising rigors of form, the dialogue replaces rendering with interpretation. My job is to see to it that what is happening does not become constrained by old habits. I am never disappointed to see that the struggle I have gone through is evident.

Another dialogue that takes place is the one between my work and the work of artists who came before me. Knowing that someone else made it possible to do what I do, I pay close attention to the work that, through the ages, has moved us beyond perceived limits to renewed vision of our known world. Each time I see a great work of art, I realize I cannot turn away from grateful and sincere homage to what has given such life and profound humanity to our existence. It is exhilarating to make art in a world in which the spirit of artists who have left us this legacy nourishes our collective imagination.

Enterprise Bank Community Project

In its mission statement, Enterprise Bank uses the verb "create". For a leading supporter of a community that draws and sustains artists, this word is especially important. We who create in order to live in and understand our world find in Enterprise Bank a strong link to the ways our endeavors are woven into the community.

My contribution to the Enterprise Bank Mural Project is a panel titled The Flowering City. Flowers and urban images have long been dominant themes in my work, so I found this subject to be particularly fitting. The intersection of nature with manmade urban structures sparks a dynamic of vitality that underscores the "vibrant, prosperous communities" of Enterprise Bank's mission statement conclusion.  Every healthy community recognizes the role of beauty and nature in its inhabitants' quality of life – both inner and outer – without which material prosperity is meaningless.

The use of collaged painting on canvas was another apt choice for me. I have worked increasingly with collage to develop a more Modernist approach to my paintings, using color to embark on an adventure in determining form.  Public murals, historically colorful and characterized by strong shapes and fractured space, make me think of collage. Quilts have similar qualities, and I associate them with the textile history of the region served by Enterprise Bank. The influence of murals and quilts, combined with my love of painting, were primary considerations in creating The Flowering City, a mixed bouquet as varied as the people who make up our community.