Featured Artist : Louise Fischman

Nature’s Chaos

percolate          agitate

   filtrate               permeate

precipitate       saturate

 concentrate    marinate

contemplate   educate 

    anticipate        appreciate​

     I create paintings that are inspired by the earth’s processes and energies. The seemingly solid geological forms in a landscape give way to cracks, seams and flow lines that mingle, cross, and compress as they melt into fantastic patterns. These fractal structures endlessly shift in perspective ranging from the enormous to the microscopic. Forms at their smallest scale are mirrored in the larger spaces they inhabit. I continue to be inspired by this mysterious and beautiful occurrence.

    While constantly arranging and rearranging shapes and colors within my compositions, I’ve found an uncanny correspondence between our planet’s ever-changing conditions and our own psychological and emotional perspectives.

    I have always been obsessed with color, particularly the range of luminosity and richness it exhibits in nature. I marvel at the interplay of light and shadow in natural forms. Light and color permeate my artwork in whichever medium I happen to be working in, be it oil, acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil, ceramic glazes, or glass mosaic. The immediacy of colored pencils helps me to discover the landscape’s underlying structures. I layer color on top of color until the drawing has the depth and richness of a painting. When I work with fluid media such as watercolors, I compare the sensuous movement of paint across paper to the earth’s hydrologic systems. It echoes the imprint of flowing water as it leaves its mark on solid land.

     I see my work as a dialogue between the natural sciences and my own psyche. I find delight in observing both nature’s underlying organizing principles and its simultaneous bursts of chaos.

Louise Fischman grew up in the New York area and had early access to its many cultural resources. She considers herself fortunate to have had parents who were first- and second-generation Americans, who gave her the gift of seeing the world through a broad perspective. 

This outlook eventually led Louise on her subsequent journey to the American Southwest. While completing her BFA degree at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, Louise participated in summer field work with the Kaibab Paiute tribe. The clear, stark, and colorfully eroded landscape of the Colorado Plateau had a profound impact on her. She relocated as soon as she could, eventually settling in the Chama Valley of Northern New Mexico, where she soon met her husband, artist, Wayne Geary. 

Louise and Wayne relocated to Salt Lake City where Louise attained her Art Education credentials. Soon after, she had the wonderful opportunity to develop a unique art program for the Behavioral Health department at Primary Children’s Hospital. Now, partially retired after 30 years, she still guides and supports young artist patients through their creative processes. 

During this entire time Louise has also actively pursued her own artwork. She works in many different mediums, from glass mosaic to ceramic hand glazed tile, to small intimate watercolors and recently more painting in acrylic and oil.

 One of Louise’s favorite mediums, however, is colored pencil. She loves it for its immediacy and for the feel of pencil on paper. She approaches it like a painter would- layering color on top of color, until the drawing almost has the depth and richness of a painting. 

Louise is very grateful to be included in the 2024 Escalante Canyons Art Festival. This is her favorite landscape that has now become her second home.