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Colleen Monette

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​Crossroads
Encaustic on cradled board, 16 x 20, framed 17 x 21, 2019

Artist Bio

Colleen is an encaustic/mixed media, collage and assemblage artist, incorporating vintage and antique documents, ephemera, books and found objects. Her paintings and assemblages have been published in art books and she has exhibited her work throughout the Northwest and Scotland. In 2018 she was accepted into a two week artist residency at Chateau d’Orquevaux in France where her work is also in the Chateau’s collection.
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Colleen lives in Seattle with her boyfriend and their blind dog, Tater. Colleen works and teaches encaustic painting in her Georgetown Seattle studio at Fogue Studios and Gallery.

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​4 Way Stop
Encaustic on cradled board, 16 x 20, framed 17 x 21, 2019

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​Don’t Pay the Freight
Encaustic Collage, antique and vintage ephemera on metal, 10 x 10 x 1.5, 2021

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The Floor from Home
Collage using vintage linoleum, antique French paper on watercolor paper and mounted on foam core, 22 x 32, 2018

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​Walk in the Woods
Encaustic on cradled board, 16 x 20, 2019

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Township 35, Survey Series, 2018
Collage of antique hand-drawn survey map, vintage stamps, india ink, chalk
16” x 20” x 1”

Artist Statement

Encaustic:
I use encaustic to create a marriage of abstract and realism, history and environment: organic pieces that are rooted in my experiences and my surroundings. Working with earth tones creates a peacefulness and calmness while the abstract nature offers multiple interpretations of the work.

Collage:
I am a salvage artist. My style of collage, my aesthetic, is much like a historian or archaeologist, to preserve what I unearth.  I love the ancient, and swoon over beautiful penmanship and old love letters. There is a deep connection I feel to the past, to the person who penned the letter, the faces in a photograph, the beauty and the decay.

Bits of ephemera, some centuries apart, are combined through folding, tearing, layering and peeling back, exposing an identity lost and creating a new history. The Japanese word, Mottainai, meaning ‘too good to waste,’ was used to describe boro fabric: textiles that have been mended and patched over and over. This resonates with me, so every scrap of antique paper or vintage fabric is saved until it finds a home in my art. I also feel the importance of using the original materials, not copies, to lend authenticity to myself and the voice I’m hoping to bring to the original owner of the document. “Human flourishing is the epic marker on your work, investing in the ups and downs.” Royal Alley-Barnes, CoCA.

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Township 36, Survey Series, 2018
Collage of antique hand-drawn survey map, vintage stamps, india ink, chalk
16” x 20” x 1”

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Brother, 2018
Encaustic collage of vintage photo, antique paper
22” x 30

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Sister, 2018
Encaustic collage of vintage photo, antique paper
22” x 30”

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Sevens on sale, 2020,
assemblage 7 x 4, vintage stamps, toy pin in carved tray, private collection.

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Balance, 2018,
encaustic collage 8 x 8, private collection.

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Erased, 2020,
collage 10 x 10, vintage and antique papers, photo on handkerchief box.

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Long Story Short, 2018,
collage 20 x 30, antique and vintage papers, found sign, private collection.

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A Whiter Shade of Pale, 2021,
13 x 30, assemblage using vintage organ keys, photo transfers, private collection.

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Social Media
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Facebook: https://facebook.com/ColleenEMonetteArt/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.e.monetteart/

Website: https://cemonetteart.com/
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AMcE Creative Arts: https://amcecreativearts.com/project/colleen-monette/

Fogue Studios and Gallery : https://foguestudios.com/colleen-monette

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