VICTORIA CHICK

“I don’t think of myself as a painter of cats even though cat images figure prominently in my work”. Victoria Chick uses the cat image to express the human condition and for that reason the body language and the relationship of the cat to other images in the picture plane is what interests her.     
  She develops rhythm by a repetition of sinuous lines and shapes across a universal space using acrylic paint on heavy cotton canvas. The line device in many of her paintings represents a separation between concrete reality and the subconscious mind and suggests how these entities influence each other. “I realize when a painting is almost done how anthropomorphic it is – the titles reflect that – and I hope the viewer will identify with the content.” 

The expressive cat images for which Chick is known developed out of self- defense. “ I was doing a lot of landscape and figure painting when I lived near Kansas City and my cats began to be underfoot in my studio. I figured if I couldn’t discourage them I might as well draw them. So my involvement with cat images really began with gesture paintings on paper.” (Please click on smaller photos to enlarge)

But her imagery is not limited to felines.   Another influence on Chick’s work was her experience as a registered art therapist in Kansas City. “Many of the people I worked with were non-verbal so I learned to pay attention to their body language and found it to be incredibly eloquent.”  Most of the images are done so the face doesn’t show. I want people to respond to the gesture of the forms and the emotional tensions they create.

Recently, monotyping has attracted her for its expressive possibilities. She can print without a press and work with the accidental textures that happen when paper is pulled from the inked glass plate.

Chick’s studio/barn in a rural mountain valley near Silver City, New Mexico is home to four horses as well as several cats that have traded being feral for square meals and modeling opportunities.

Currently Victoria has works on show at Santa Ysabel Art Gallery, Santa Ysabel California  760-765-1676 and the JW Gallery in Hurley, New Mexico.
 www.zhibit.org/rag
 

Please click on photos to enlarge.

     

For our interview with Victoria, plus a visual tour of her work, please click here.

To hear Victoria Chick’s interview from an excerpt of SouthwestBlend.com’s Online Radio Show that aired on May 4, 2008, please double click on the Play Button below.

 

To contact Victoria by phone, ( 575) 534-4680- or visit her website at www.artistvictoriachick.com