VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Jung Center of Houston presents the exhibition Margaret Dobbins: An Earth Connection. On view May 2 through May 26.

Margaret Dobbins uses the strong interaction of surface color and form with several layers of hidden color to emphasize a feeling of mystery in her abstract and realistic paintings. Recently she has embarked on a series of paintings interpreting connections to the Earth.

Margaret Dobbins, a native of Texas, excelled in art at an early age. Wandering through museums as a young child, she developed a great appreciation for the career of an artist. She began her formal study early and culminating in a Bachelors degree in Art. With over thirty years of experience, she has been able to create art that has powerful depth and movement, yet contains soothing energy.

Dobbins' influences include many forms of art expression: music, color, movement and nature. She always paints to music in order to set the mood while exploring the relationships of color and shape. She spends a great deal of time in the western part of the country for inspiration, exploration and regeneration. Furthermore, she works in abstract expressionism as well as realism.

An award-winning artist and Hunting Art Prize Finalist in 2007, she has held many one-woman shows, and has works in numerous corporate and private collections both in the United States and abroad. Currently she is working on a series of large canvases and has just published her first series of giclee prints.

Artist Statement - My abstract paintings reflect my continuing fascination with rock formations. This fascination began early for me and it is how I connect with the earth and the world around me. Searching to find openings or pathways into these formations is one way I begin my paintings. One vertical stroke can be the beginning or I focus on color with vertical emphasis and then add floating shapes that could be fragments caught in what I imagine as sediment. I go from there developing a dialog with my painting. My view can change during the painting process, it may begin as being inside the earth to flying over the earth as in an aerial view.

When I paint I tell myself stories about the possibilities of mysterious ancient civilizations still existing beneath my feet. These stories just float through my mind while I am working on fusing colors, shapes and symbols. In the past I intentionaly painted these earth layers I called stratascapes, but now they reside in my subconscious and rise to the surface as I paint. The narration takes me back to childhood when I would dig in the woods of east Texas and pretend I was exploring an indian mound, always hoping to find arrowheads and artifacts.

Through the use of dominant color I search for hidden memories of those civilizations. Then using layers of subtle color and suggested pattern I move through the earthy sediment and hope the observer may enter my world.

Pictured above:  detail The View at Blue Harbor.  (full image below).