a non-profit gallery for the visual and performing arts

2833-A Hathaway Rd., Richmond, VA 23225
in the Stratford Hills Shopping Center

Gallery hours beginning Saturday, January 22, 2022:
Noon to 4pm, Tuesday - Sunday
Free and Open to the Public
Purchase artwork from our online store

Carol Meese
only when they spread their wings, 2022
Acrylic, charcoal, ink, graphite, gold leaf on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

Carol Meese
It slowly sinks, 2021
Plaster, charcoal, graphite, gold leaf on canvas board, 10 x 8 inches. Framed 14 x 11 inches.

Prayer Books

The mystery of un spoken words, unconscious thoughts, and unheard prayers emerge in these paintings. During our pandemic time was spent reading and thinking about solitude. Buried in these painting are words from Theodore Rilke's poem "Solitude." and personal prayers. A pentimento effect is created with paint, plaster, ink and graphite. Thoughts about solitude are inscribed then obscured as if by smoke or fog or ignored thoughts or speech. The meaning is obscured, left to the viewer to complete.

Carol Anna Meese. 2022

Artist Statement

Because I come to painting late in life, having had a previous professional career, I feel time is slipping by and there is felt pressure to work hard to see what I am made of. All my life experiences have come into play, I think there is a greater depth than when I was 30. I don’t need to make money or please anyone which gives me freedom.

My previous career in psychology gave me an understanding of what motivates others, how to relate on an emotional level, and of the importance of the subconscious and unconscious helping me to communicate on a subliminal level. Saying things that have no words.

There are links between my work in paint, clay, and fiber. Commonalities in my work come from a developed aesthetic which influences all that I do. Love of the imperfect, raw, poetic, and Wabi Sabi nature of things keeps me pursuing the simple and using organic materials and neutral colors. In all things I seek simplicity, space, and the essence of things, eliminating the unnecessary.

Spiritual quality is something I feel and I hope comes through my work. It is perhaps the use of white, unlimited space, lack of boundaries, and ephemeral floating images that are not representational, not definable, are abstract and not of this world. I hope to lift and transport viewers.

Biography

Carol Anna Meese, born in Washington, D.C., has traveled, lived, studied and worked in Mexico, Italy, The West Indies, Nepal and Bangladesh. Her paintings and photographs have progressed through exhibitions and competitions throughout the United States and abroad. She has exhibited at The Studio Arts Center International, Florence, Italy, and had exhibitions at L’Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, Bangladesh and at The Third Eye, Katmandu, Nepal. Numerous accolades include the seasonal program cover for The Richmond Symphony. Meese was recently awarded “Best in Show” at The Perkinson Center for the Arts, Virginia, and featured in a book on Madonna. Her current body of work is progressing toward the abstract and minimal. Meese exhibits in art galleries in Virginia, Washington DC, and North Carolina.

Meese’s art is included in the collections of L’Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Dartmouth College, a Norwegian film producer, and Michael Ondaatje, Author of The English Patient.

Carol lives in the Richmond, Virginia area, and The Outer Banks, North Carolina. She holds a Master of Science Degree in Clinical Psychology and has postgraduate training in fine art, creative writing, and art therapy at Virginia Commonwealth University, The George Washington University, and The Studio Arts Center International, Florence, Italy. She recently restored The Nathaniel Friend House (circa 1816), Petersburg, Virginia. She continues to travel extensively and plans to paint and exhibit her way around the world.