My images are informed by the Landscape; its ordered space, atmospheric forms and rich ephemeral colors. The narrative in my work is born from the relationship between the representational and abstract elements within my direct environment. Their textures, surfaces and colors influence my creative process. First the ‘Mother Forms’, derived from quick landscape drawings created by observation from the window of an airplane, train or car. Juxtaposing my invented ‘Mother Forms’ with elements from the everyday world builds the reality of my images.

 The narrative places importance upon the vortex and chaos in life, along with the issue of its containment-control. The form of the vortex returns often in my work and comes from nature-probably the result of my visions of storms seen while flying through the atmosphere on long trans-Atlantic flights at night or to Michigan during the changing seasons. The vortex is a symbol representing power all mixed up with passion, anxiety and my own nest of fear and excitement. Threshold and Gateway imagery is also recurrent in my work, making reference to universal ideas about passage and journey.

Debra Radke

dradke1@tampabay.rr.com