Page 23 - the NOISE September 2013

Color In Motion by Dolores Ziegler is part of the artist’s retrospective at Mountain Oasis this September.
nAturAL inSPirAtion
This September the paintings of Michelle Wolfe Moen will be featured at the Artists’ Co- alition of Flagstaff’s Gallery at 111 E. Aspen.
I ask Ms. Moen about her art. “I have al- ways loved to draw as long as I can remember. I started using watercolors in 1980. I tried acrylics and loved the rich bright colors. Re- cently I took an oil workshop and found oils to be exhilarating to move around the canvas.”
“Animals of any kind out in their natural environment are top on my list for inspira- tion,” Ms. Moen tells me. “I do enjoy the ever- changing landscapes and the diverse faces of nature. Wildlife added into the painting seems to complete the composition. Walk- ing out in the woods and feeling the season gets me started on that feeling of wanting to create. I will spend much time away from the art studio just building a composition in my mind first. I also enjoy going to visit mu- seums or art galleries and hanging around other creative people and strengthening my creative energy. It seems like all of a sudden I have an idea just pop into my head and I have a plan for a painting.”
Ms. Moen tells me about Vincent Van Gogh’s influence on her art. “I have always en- joyed studying Van Gogh and I have always loved sunflowers,” Ms. Moen says. “Vincent Van Gogh struggled as a painter. He wrote many heartfelt letters to his brother Theo Van Gogh. Theo, in return, would be encourag- ing and supportive any way he could. In my painting Art Critic, there is a field of sunflow- ers with an iridescent raven flying over the field. He has a paintbrush in his beak. In the foreground you can see two larger sunflow- ers. One is withered and one is stronger and protective of the withered one.”
The pieces on display for the First Friday
ArtWalk at the ACF Gallery will be a collec- tion of Ms. Moen’s best watercolors, acrylics and oil paintings. Flagstaff-arts.org
BeSt of SHoW
Flagstaff artist Delores Zeigler can often be found at the ACF Gallery where she is the Gallery Director. When I stop in to ask her about her upcoming show, she is working on new greeting cards with windows holding small strips of paper carefully woven like bas- kets. Ms. Zeigler laughs as she tries to bring order to her table as she works, small pieces of paper fly away from her and finally she sim- ply sighs and lets the matter rest.
Ms. Zeigler is a prolific artist, working in many different mediums and exploring new themes. In the past when I’ve talked to her, her focus is always different. One year it was artist trading cards, the next collaged and de- coupage bird houses, abstract paintings, and this end of summer finds her flourishing the paint brush to create aspen paintings.
It would seem the artist lets the paint- ings speak for themselves, while we talk she reveals very little about herself and the thoughts behind the painting. Her love for her art shows as she speaks.
“I paint like you would with watercolor on canvas,” she tells me. This process creates a unique effect, the paint seems to decide what will form in the painting. Where the wa- ter and color moved on its own, it seems to have created the reflection of the aspens on the surface of a lake.
Over the years Ms. Zeigler’s paintings have won many prizes, and this September at Mountain Oasis International Restaurant, 11 E. Aspen, she proudly displays her prize- winning paintings along with some of her new works. One of her most recent accom- plishments, she tells me, is to have a painting
>> Continued on PAGe 24
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news • september 2013 • 23