Born in Michigan in 1965, artist Roxanne Vise lives and works in Scottsdale, Arizona with her husband and young son. She spent the majority of her childhood in California’s Napa Valley, where she acquired not only a love of the nearby ocean and wild spaces of the area, but also the free spirited, intuitive approach that today infuses her art.

The relationship between abstraction and spirituality along with a penetrating sense of wonder of the natural world inspires much of Roxanne’s work. She rarely has a scripted plan for how a painting will be completed lets mood, intuition and spontaneous gestures act as guides. At each stage of a painting, she continually pushes the envelope of emotion, texture, layers and imagery. She may begin a painting with an inspirational thought or idea or even sketch a few images and play with composition. From there, she takes the painting on a journey of spontaneous twists and turns, often incorporating organic materials like aspen leaves, beeswax, acrylic, oil stick and tree resin to infuse each painting with energy, depth and luminosity.

Roxanne’s interest in subjects is only limited by the constraints of time. From exploring the idea of aspen trees - each connected through their root systems - as one living organism, the infinity of the cosmos, the depth of the ocean, the small flower breaking concrete to reach the sun, to geometric blocks of color marrying ancient geological imagery with primitive gemstones, the textures and wonder of life and the interconnectedness of it all supplies Roxanne with ideas to paint for more than a lifetime. Her current focus lies in three series: layered aspen leaves - in composition to draw parallels with humanity, celestial landscapes and abstracted geometric images in wax and resin.

Roxanne’s work has gained attention throughout the western United States where she has received commissions from wineries and private clients and selected as a poster artist for several events.

Primarily self-taught, release from copying methods of historic artists has allowed Roxanne the freedom to explore new concepts and develop innovative techniques that characterizes her work.

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Artist Statement

"I’m intrigued by the relationship between abstraction and spirituality. I love to work in layers and textures to explore the tensions between the real and the abstract, chaos and order, the subtleties and the obvious. Abstraction begs for that freedom - to push its way through the boundaries of any kind, shrewdly seeking it’s own existence - beyond scale and common form.

Working in this way is intoxicating! I am pulled by an invisible - almost intangible - thread asking me to let it become what it will - teasing me to experiment and to push the envelope of possibilities. When I begin a painting, I often have little more than the seed of the idea, the size of the support and a general idea of palette. I work both large and small - I quickly cover the full support with my chosen base color and then let mood, intuition and spontaneous gestures take it from there, one becoming the foundation or the direction sign for the next - basically I get out of the way and allow myself to be a sort of vessel or tool for the work to emerge and become.

This may all sound somewhat metaphysical and perhaps it is. The illusive and unseen qualities of human behavior, the senses beyond the intelligence and the connection of all living things are ideas that motivate me. What is more interesting, the image on a surface or the feeling that makes you want to touch it? For me, it’s the feeling.

My inspiration for a piece or a series can come from a variety of sources. The simple beauty of an aspen leaf and the fact that their tree’s root systems are interconnected, creating one living organism - or the wonder of celestial objects and landscapes - or the alchemy of materials and the results of their reaction to each other - or images of my imagination in dialogue with a scientific belief. Modern science plays its role in my work as collaborationist in the opposing dialogue between empirical experience and knowledge and conceptual speculation, fantasy and imagination.

I often work on several paintings at once, allowing me to detach from the work to some extent and allow them to breath. Once a painting is finished, I’m not hung up on interpretation and it’s often hard for me to extract a single meaning. I am more interested in how the viewer sees a piece and as a result giving it a life beyond the past and present in which I have experienced it.

Drawing and creating since childhood, I’ve come back to creating art seriously for only a few years now. Now that I’ve started again, I have ideas for more than a lifetime allows. My art sells, although I’m not sure why. It makes me delighted when it does - like I’ve sparked a feeling in someone, or turned a key - they get what IT is. Perhaps it was theirs before I began - or maybe it just matches their sofa." – Roxanne Vise

Memberships include: The Sonoran Arts League and International Encaustic Artists

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