The Saginaw Charter Township Art In Public Places is proud to present D. Joanne Rummel of Midland, Michigan, for the month of November.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
My interest in art began at an early age. Coming from a creative family, I was encouraged and influenced by my surroundings. After graduating from high school in New Jersey, I attended Wittenberg University in Ohio where I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Although intending to further my studies as a medical illustrator, my goal was interrupted when I moved to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where I began teaching Elementary Art. With the exception of a few years during which I was raising a family, I spent 30 years teaching. My experience has included both elementary and high school art, working several years as an art history adjunct at SVSU, offering private lessons and teaching art classes for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
My work in the art field has included illustrations for two books, several logo designs, festival button designs and historical building drawings for several local communities and numerous commissions. I have studied with Ted Nuttall, Charles Reid, Joseph Fettingis, Eric Wiegardt, Donna Zagota, Suzanne Winton and Kathleen Kalinowski. In 1998, I earned a Fulbright Memorial Teacher Scholarship to Japan. Having entered art shows throughout the area, I have received numerous awards. Most recently in 2016, I received an Honorable Mention from Creative 360, Award of Merit from Saginaw Township State of the Arts, Best 2D award from The Midland Artist Guild Show and First Place in Saginaw’s First Congregational Show.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Detail and design are my primary interests. These are manifested in all of my life but especially in my creative activities. Taking photos, especially digitally, of people or things that daily catch my eye often become sources of inspiration. Cropping an image to create a realistic painting or altering a portion that has good design qualities, becomes part of my fascination with the play of light and dark areas, the overall composition and the interaction of objects one against another.
Because watercolor is my primary medium, both its complexities and application of paint from pale washes to increasingly darker and darker glazes of color, becomes an additional challenge. Whatever the subject matter, this challenge is met through subtleties or with a bolder more realistic effect. People, my favorite subject, present an additional problem. Not only is a likeness, but also the essence of a personality become another goal of the painting. Once again my fascination with details and design as well as the complexities of the watercolor medium become my vehicles for achieving my objectives.
Although I work primarily in watercolor, I have also been experimenting with a similar approach in oil, acrylic and some collage. Lately, I have been fascinated with approaching detail and design using bleach and graphite. In doing so, approaching a composition from the negative bleach to the positive graphite is intriguing.
Joanne’s art exhibit will be shown at the Saginaw Charter Township Hall, 4980 Shattuck Road, Saginaw, Michigan, during business hours Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 p.m., November 1 through November 30, 2016. The Offices are closed for Thanksgiving, November 24 & 25, all day.