ROSLYN FASSETT

ARTIST RESUME

Roslyn Fassett lives in Pine Island, New York between Mt. Adam and Eve.

Educational background includes studying fine art at Cooper Union and a graduate degree in art history at CCNY. She teaches African, Oceanic and Native North American Art History at SUNY Purchase.

Travels include Africa, Peru, Bellize, Mexico, Hondurus and Guatemala.

Born in New York, childhood in Brooklyn, likes to roam. First studied life drawing at the Brooklyn Museum as a teenager, continued art studies at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

Interested in indigenous cultures. Travel in Mexico, Guatemala, Alaska and Africa. Earned a Master’s Degree in Art History at CCNY specializing in African, Oceanic and Native North American Studies. Teaches these subjects at SUNY Purchase.

Was a member of the Atlantic Gallery for seven years, has had numerous one person exhibitions. Medium of work includes oil on canvas and collage on paper.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The thread that winds throughout all my pieces is the relationship between human life and nature. Changes and rhythms of the earth are reflected in large oil paintings of women and water. Boundaries are removed, a crossing over or breakdown of the borders, and as all life is animate and interrelated the destruction of one affects the other.

A second series is of collages, “memory and place” constructed of my recyled drawings and paintings. Fragmented images of women and landscape are rearranged and reunited to form a new perspective. Occasional elements from my travels in Mali, Africa appear.

My work also includes a collage series with the image of the pinkslip, an image used by the women’s organization, Codepink. These pieces are political and feminist asserting the power of the feminine. They reflect action, humor and the seriousness of women.

The Rapture collage series represents the quest for the realization of a authentic spiritual experience. The promise is considered which offers to obedient and faithful followers, the ascension to heaven on judgement day. My women, are shown twinned with dark shadows making them a complete unity of both good and evil. These women are in limbo, considering what Paradise is and if they do indeed wish to reside there. Disbelief and confusion results.

As in a tapestry, a thread weaves an essential visual connection between human life and nature. In my work boundaries are removed, a crossing over or break down of borders results, as all life is animate and interrelated; the destruction of one affects the other.