Phillis Ideal

My compositions and palettes evolve during my experiments in the studio, conflating and referencing many historical movements and tendencies from Modernism to Abstract Expressionism, Color Field to Minimalism and beyond—creating my own language out of many forms of abstraction. I try to open up visual possibility, painting expansively, regardless of the size of the visual field, laying down broadly described areas of color, painterly gesture, defined contour, combinations of texture, scratch and scribble, and geometrically defined hard edges. My paintings layer and illustrate a visual history of the medium’s evolution while simultaneously concealing it, transforming the image into something altogether new.

—Phillis Ideal

Patrick McFarlin

—I woke up to “It Paints”— that out-of-body experience where some inexplicable force takes over the production. Fellini described it this way: “When I direct, a mysterious invader takes over and directs the whole film for me.” Philip Guston put it like this: “You go into the studio and everybody is there — your friends , the art writers and the museum people and you’re just there painting. And one by one they leave until you’re really alone. Then Ideally, you leave.” It paints.

—Patrick McFarlin

Sue McNally

So, the effort, the struggle, the challenge—that is the art. Painting is my craft.

As my most favorite thing to do, the process of painting seeps into every part of my life and it is what makes me a whole person. One of my favorite people in the world was my aunt, Sister Eleanor McNally. She and I talked about the concept of a ‘calling’ many times. Although I am not a religious person, being an artist is my calling; she and I both agreed upon that. So why do I do it? Because it’s what I am.

—Sue McNally