Lenore McKerlie

I am an instructor at UCCS in painting and drawing. My courses include Beginning Oil Painting, Advanced Painting, Mixed Media Painting, Painting From Life, Intermediate and Advanced Drawing.

Brief statement of research and creative interests
My research for the content of my paintings delves into the relationship between humans and nature, in particular, livestock, in particular, cattle. I have visited and studied livestock auctions, livestock shows, ranching, cattle on the range, show cattle, meat eating, vegetarianism, compassion, the history of cattle culture, cattle in art history, deep ecology, ecocide, ecofeminism, anthropomorphism and other related topics.

The reason I focus on cattle is because of their dual status of non-human life and commodity.

In addition I am interested in the continuing and increasing spiritual/empathic separation between humans and nature (which includes all animals) and the place of women in the Western, Eurocentric culture. The content of my paintings address these issues through abstracted, expressionistic, mixed media imagery.

The imagery in my work presents a sympathetic view of cattle, and places them in respectful circumstances. I think there are too many examples of anthropomorphism of all animals that is demeaning to them and supports the mistaken human notions of self-satisfaction and superiority.

I am researching the medium of encaustic in order to include more of that medium in my paintings. Other media that a viewer may see in my work includes, paintstick and oil pastels, cold wax, collage, oil and alkyd paints.

Artists and art periods that inspire and instruct me include, Susan Rothenburg, Mary Frank, Terry Winters, Medieval Manuscript Painting, Jasper Johns, Sue Coe, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Anne Truitt, James Turrell, Sam Scott, Squeak Carnwath, Nicole Charbonnet to name but a very few off the top of my head.

Education
MA degree, painting and photography, Adams State College, CO 2002
BA degree, Art History, University of California, Davis, CA 1980
MA program, Art History University of California, Davis, CA 1981-82
MFA program, painting, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 1986

Selected Work

Selected Exhibitions
Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO
Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, CO
Pirate, A Contemporary Art Oasis, Denver, CO
Sandra Phillips Gallery, Denver, CO

Joan Hanley Fine Arts Gallery, La Veta, CO
Fresh Art Gallery, Denver, CO
Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, Pueblo, CO
Plantera Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO
Adams State College, Alamosa, CO.
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, CO
Business of Art Center, Manitou Springs, CO
Laramie County Community College, Cheyenne, WY
PPCC Downtown Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO
Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts, Palmer Lake, CO.
Spark Gallery, Denver, CO.
Singer Gallery, Denver, CO

Teaching Experience and Other Related Experience
Instructor/Faculty, Visual and Performing Arts Department, UCCS
Painting Your Inner Landscape” workshop, Manitou Springs, CO 1997
Museum Assistant, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, CO
Museum Public Relations Assistant, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
Assistant Curator, Richard L. Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis, CA.
Art History Teaching Assistant, University of California, Davis, CA, 1980 - 82.
Art Slide Librarian Assistant, University of CA, Davis, CA. 1977 - 78.

Selected Awards and Honors
Art Award, 2nd Place, Colorado Open, Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO
Colorado Artists Fellowship, Colorado Council on the Arts, Denver, CO
Artists Fellowship, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, CO
Colorado Visions Recognition Award Colorado Council on the Arts, Denver, CO,
Best of Show, Colorado State Fair Fine Art Exhibit, Pueblo, CO

Lectures/Presentations
Seminar,“ The Abstract, the Divine and the Process”, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
Presentation, “Recent Paintings”, Art Resources Southern Colorado Conference
Lecture, “Connecting Concerns in Varied Styles” Pikes Peak Community Coll,
Lecture, “Artistic Motivation and Inspiration” Sangre de Cristo Arts Center

Professional Affiliations
Member, College Art Association

Lenore McKerlie Artist’s Statement
My paintings represent an expressionistic depiction of ideas concerning marginalization of women and animals and nature. A strong influence on the content of my paintings is the emerging reflective/living systems paradigm, which includes ecofeminist philosophy. In the paint surfaces of the canvases there is exuberance of rich life represented by the metaphor of thick paint and strong, clear hues. Several successful, well recognized contemporary artists have provided me with inspiration and motivation, both by their lives and their work: Terry Winters, Susan Rothenberg and Mary Frank. Historical visual sources of cattle as honored beings in past history have spurred me to expose the present empathic gap between humans and cattle and between humans and nature. The gap relates to the gulf between the controlling male in Western culture and all “Others”. Figures of cattle and women, symbolizing the “others”, reside quietly within an active, agitated variety of drawing marks, color, collaged elements and seed and plant shapes. The figures are “drawn” with paint media in a rough irregular manner simultaneously residing in and emerging from the surrounding paint. They communicate ambiguities about the human/nature disparity. At the same time, their intimate juxtapositions suggest their common bond. In these paintings, the challenge of portraying social commentary through abstract painting expression has resulted in an enigmatic, subtle confrontation. Creative choices and manipulation of mixed media push the works beyond mere rendering. Emotion of content is exaggerated by the lusciousness of surface. Stasis and movement, chaos and order represent the struggle between entropy and a new direction of thought.