Miriam Gilman

"The Yangtze"
Mixed Media
30" x 36" framed

Statement

My work is multi-faceted because I have drawing and painting since I was 10 years old. I have studied many techniques. To this day I enjoy learning new applications and new ways of looking at the world around me.
 
My most recent work reflects my love of Bible study. I especially enjoy reading the “Midrash”, the stories Rabbis tell to fill-in areas of the Bible for which we have little information. The two pieces in this show are part of a series on “Creation”.
 
Memories form the core of the subjects in my still-life paintings. When my mother died in 1980, I stored the objects I had always viewed as dust collectors—china cups, statuettes, vases. Now these objects are the only tangible reminders of my mother. So I use them to remind me of the past.
 
Another favorite subject is one of my addictions—shoes.  As Grant Wood stated, “Paint what you know”, and I have spent a lifetime collecting shoes.  The bright lighting and white background in my paintings result in shadows that create interesting negative spaces. I choose to reflect historical trends in shoe design, changing roles of women and men’s attempts to subjugate women.

And finally, nature provides inspiration for my landscape paintings and monotypes. My inspiration for the water lily monotypes came from a trip to Paris where I visited Musee Marmaton and L’Orangerie, spending hours immersed in the art of Claude Monet. I create the peacefulness of a calm pond on which colorful water lilies float and record the graceful movements of Japanese Koi fish.
 
I have exhibited throughout New England and other parts of the United States and am the recipient of awards from the Newton Art Association, the Brookline Art Association, the Masur Art Museum in Louisiana and the Newton Senior Center Citywide Contest for Original Artwork in 1995. In 2002 I was awarded a Newton Cultural Council Grant to study silkscreen monotype technique in preparation for an exhibit on “Miriam in Bible and Midrash”. I taught oil painting in the Winchester Adult Education program and Tufts University Women’s Center. I taught “Monotype Printmaking” for Newton Adult Education at my studio in Newton.