Creation is So-O Big!

 

Sun's a Comin

 

When Birds Rule

 

 

My Textured Palace

 

My Winged House Takes Flight

Red Oasis

Double Dip

 

Ride the Joy!

 

Just Before

 

Some Folks Call It Checkerboard Heaven

 

Catch Me If You Can

 

River Story 2

 

River Story 3

 

 

Home is Where the Gold Is

 

 

Spring Rain

ARTIST STATEMENT

Painting is my meditation. The most compelling, even haunting, force propelling my images has been an unquenchable thirst for recording and expressing transformation. I try to synthesize different influences in my life into a rich and complex imagery that tells of the connection between the outer experience of daily life and the inner world of a developing spiritual heart.

My paintings have usually employed recognizable images, although they are not "realistic," and are represented in ambiguous spaces, watery and atmospheric. In much of my work, my experimentation with images has evolved with an understanding that there is a kind of internal logic linking certain forms with each other, a logic that, perhaps, belongs to the world of archetypes, and definitely forms its own iconography of symbols.  All of my work reflects constant motion and change. The pieces are layered and developed, usually, over an extended period of time. Regardless of the medium, be it watercolor, acrylics or oil, time plays a significant role in these works and I think it important to honor its importance.  There is often an intentional blurring of boundaries between exterior and interior, between the physical and the psychical- this is what sustains my interest and what, for me, continuously opens up future possibilities.    

My newest work, however, leans toward a primary concern for color and I record images with a very sensuous and textured palette. I am beginning a series that I am calling "Living in the Big House."  This image has grabbed me of late in a way that nothing else has.  The metaphor of the house is, for me, our world.  It is also a many layered symbol of levels of consciousness – the inside world / the outside world.  I am fascinated by the evolution of this image in my work and it has, I think, interesting implications. I began incorporating little abstract villages into my paintings thirty years ago, externally motivated by my trip through Europe by train, passing countless clusters of small towns amidst verdant landscapes.  This imagery came to mean civilization to me- all the little villages of our planet.  Recently, my imagery has simplified and I find myself thinking One Big House, One Big World and we are all in it as sparks of One.  My intention with these pieces is to integrate my mixed media methods of paint handling and formal concerns with the power of the simplified house image, thus hopefully producing pieces that resonate meaning in a contemporary format.  Titles are poetry for me and are an integral part of the intention of the pieces I am creating.
Mira M. White
August, 2008

For more information and to see more of Mira M. White's work, please visit her site:

Mira M. White's site: www.miraMwhite.com

Email: mira@miraMwhite.com

Phone: 925 947-5773

 

 

Biography

Mira M. White is an award-winning painter with an exhibition record both domestic and international, and has been an art instructor for over 30 years. She organizes and conducts numerous workshops in Pastels, Watercolor, and Mixed Media, including several ongoing painting workshops in France. She received the Grand Prize at the prestigious Rocky Mountain National Aquamedia Exhibition in 2001, was presented in Watercolor Magic-winter 2002, and was a Third-place winner in the national Pastel Journal competition of 2006.

Her love affair with painting has always been directed by a love of light. This preoccupation with luminosity has served as a connecting thread between all of her works, be them still life, landscape, figure, or her personal myth imagery paintings. Her working methods vary according to medium and subject, but, generally, she has a multi-layered approach.

Process and play with materials is extremely important to this artist. Work may begin from simply pushing paint around, from a sketch, photo, or from visual memory, but the work evolves and changes until a tight visual structure exists that delights her eye as in a visual dance. She tries to convey mood through a rich, vibrant color system and wants the viewer to enter into the paintings and enjoy the dance.

Mira lives, works, and teaches in Walnut Creek, CA.