Becomings

Anne Marie Rossi will present recent works that explore how change leads to transformation—the transformation of surfaces, of images, of colors. Rossi does not adhere to “rigid rules or goals.”  Instead, through practice and process, she is able to intuit and move paintings to the “next level of complexity.”  Each piece is multi-layered and abstract; each has unimpeded areas of original color, shape or line, and areas that have been obliterated or changed by layers of transparent color or pattern.  As she explains, “This process is repeated over and over again until the painting has been transformed into a finished piece.”

According to Rossi, she “did not take up a brush, charcoal, or even a pastel stick until after a career in law and an abandoned attempt to become a holistic counselor.”  It was her frustration with not being able to draw the images she was working with in practice as a counselor that encouraged her to study painting and drawing at the Rhode Island School of Design. For Rossi, her work is an extension of a belief that “everything is connected with, and sustained by, an energetic and creative life force.”  Rossi’s works have been exhibited at Mystic Art Museum, Newport Art Museum, Barrington Public Library, law offices and other corporate venues.  She founded Studio 107, a group for established artists to continue to grow as artists through critique groups, classes and collaborative art projects.

Crandon Whitsitt-Lynch is fascinated with creating and layering complex patterns when producing his prints. He says, “Nothing succeeds like excess!”  His works explore using a stream-of-consciousness process while maintaining strong formal design concepts. Working primarily with intaglio, he treats each plate as if it were in constant flux, as if the piece of work is evolving.  Whitsitt-Lynch finds the process more intriguing than “the so-called ‘finished product.’’

At Rhode Island College, Whitsitt-Lynch studied printmaking, metal sculpting, and jewelry making, graduating with a BFA in 2011. Printmaking is, according to Whitsitt-Lynch, a “perfect outlet” to utilize “my obsessive-compulsive tendencies” and “attention to detail in a productive way.”  For Whitsitt-Lynch it was important to master the technical processes of printmaking before exploring how ideas could be expressed more creatively and broadly. Currently, he is incorporating sculpture, jewelry and printmaking in his art making process. Whitsitt-Lynch uses his intaglio printmaking tools to carve molds, then uses lost-wax casting to make objects that eventually are combined into his completed works.

Other IMAGO artists who will participate in the exhibit include Eileen Siobhan Collins, Mary Dondero, Phillip Gruppuso, Carl Keitner, Pascale Lord, Eileen Mayhew, Rina Naik, Mercedes Nuñez, Lenny Rumpler, Amy Sutherland, Howard Rotblat-Walker, and Howard Windham.