Artist Statement:
My first memory of making art is as a six-year-old in a polio rehabilitation hospital in Los Angeles. I made a finger painting. I still remember the joy of moving the paint around with my hands. Even as I worked professionally, I’ve always found time to do some kind of art work. Twelve years ago, I began working full time as an artist. I took my maiden name “Doyle” and my mother’s maiden name “Fanning.” My work has focused on print making using digital tools to alter photographs to create works inspired by traditional painting and print making media. I also paint and draw, and cut and fold paper because I still love the tactile feel of making.
I’m not consciously aware of inspirations or influences. I just do the work. It is only afterwards that I can see how the work may have been inspired by something I’ve seen or read. Right now, I’m following Makoto Fugimura, Marcus Jahmal and Wayne Thiebaud’s art, and Owen Barfield and Mark Vernon’s writings.
In the weeks following my birthday in January 2022 the world, on hold for two years, suddenly opened up again. Life and energy returned to my work. I’m not consciously aware of trying to do things differently. The work just found its way and revealed itself.
Interlude
A place of rest and repose. At rest, the dark settles out and the light rises.
I worked with this image for months. I stretched it, bent it, layered images on it, but it refused alteration, steadfastly staying unchanged. It was out of balance, heavy, and weighed down. I left it for weeks at a time but was drawn back to it time and again. It had something to say if I could only figure out what it was. Then recently in frustration, I flipped it upside down. All that was needed to bring it into balance was a change of orientation.
Flora Drift
A cloud of white flowers adrift on a gentle spring wind.
This work came quickly and easily. I was clearing out photograph files when a long-forgotten photograph of flowers and grass on the side of a road seemed to call to me. As I played with the image, a cloud of flowers emerged and drifted gently across and off the page. Nothing left to do but a bit of trimming, touch up, and background fill.
Yes
An affirmation and a blessing.
Owen Barfield and Mark Vernon write that words have souls which is why poetry is powerful and transformative. “yes” revealed itself late one night while testing words on my manual typewriter. Now it is pinned to the wall in my bedroom where it can speak to me each morning and night.
“But the soul won’t survive…and neither will our humanness unless beauty exists.”
Art as a Space of Reconciliation/ Justin Earley