Anna Kincaide

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Known for her powerful and elegant color work, Michelle Torrez' expressionistic oil painting figures are vivid and painterly. But on closer examination, there are qualities that are not obvious - Torrez communicates the beauty of unlikely emotions. Torrez believes that the greatest influences on her work were the circumstances of her childhood and teen-age years. "My life influenced me to look deeper to find the beauty and humanity in people and places. Even at an early age, I knew I was an artist." Born in Denver, Colorado, Torrez is the oldest of four children from a working class family. Caring for her younger siblings while her parents worked, she would sit on the porch and draw to pass the time. "The other children would come round to watch, and art soon became a way of making friends for me." Instead of playing with other children, she drew them on computer paper her father brought home from his job at IBM. Her art became a survival skill in a rough urban junior high school, where Torrez entertained even the toughest girls by drawing pictures of naked men. By the age of 13, she was painting and selling black light posters...

Water has been the backdrop to the significant events in my life. The reconstruction of radiant moments that exist in memory define the images I choose to paint, of swimming in the l...

Anthony Panzera is a member of The National Academy and the Society of Mural Painters. He teaches at Hunter College in New York City, where he has been a member of the Fine Art faculty since 1968. He was also an artist-in-residence for the Michigan State...

"As an African-American artist in today’s world, I embody the vast differences found in our collective backgrounds. I view them as cultural assets. We are always self discovering and these self discoveries take us in surprising directions. We must gain strength from what we learn from each other as well as listen to that persistent, ever present, intuitive self. The connection of one’s own rich heritage and person growth will travel into the inevitable and critical connection between African Americans and Africa. These connections are rich and very important. They Exist! My work, I hope, will serve as a creative connection between the African diaspora and western culture. It is this connection that cause my creative forces to react." Janice Frame...