Women in Art 278 Magazine December 2013 | Page 56

website facebook e-mail american artist ilene adams mixed media & photography I believe that art and beauty bring joy and wellbeing to individuals and are essential for a well-balanced life. Ever since I was a child, I have created one form of art or another, from drawing and painting, to printmaking, graphic design, decorative arts and photography. The artists who influenced me the most are Robert Rauschenberg and Maxfield Parish. Rauschenberg’s influence is apparent in my paintings that incorporate paint, collage, photographic images and artifacts. They evoke a feeling of nostalgia or of imaginary places. My photographs deal mostly with nature, but nature through an intense filter. Images are put under a microscope and colors are heightened. There is beauty all around us but how often do we take the time to really see it? Ordinary images are enhanced to create painterly new images that leave the viewer wondering if they are paintings or photographs? Abstract or realistic? Bruce Helander wrote, “Ilene Adams, is also a professional painter who has continued to sharpen her palette and compositional skills while searching out new subject matter inspired by nature. Her recent series of large-scale photographic prints could be mistaken initially for a sharp focus oil painting on canvas. This wondrous selection of water reflections from surrounding natural growth topped off with floating green circles of blooming water lilies is a unique extension of the artist’s trained eye. In some of the photographs we are confronted by a series