Mickey Bond www.mickeybond.com Artist Statement: My paintings reflect my daily response to nature's beauty, her dynamic forces and the mystery of creation. I work in two styles: abstract landscape paintings and mixed media abstracts. Though both derive from the same plein air experience, the landscapes evoke a sense of place and mood whereas the abstracts explore an essential aspect of nature such as the sea, sky and land. An abstract expressionist, I prize mark making highly and allow my compositions to grow out of direct contact with my painting media. I do use brushes but mainly non-traditional such as scrapers, cloths, sponges, knives and primarily my hands. Painting outdoors, I think of nature as my collaborator deeply affecting me and the mediums I use, sometimes with surprising results. Last winter, I discovered by accident how to make ice crystal prints on the surface of clayboards. A technique known to watercolorists but new to me, learning how to capture these delicate patterns felt like a secret bestowed by nature. My current plein air series “Trees Listening for Winter� explores the use of translucent colored crystal prints as underpainting. I was born in Israel to parents from Poland & Bulgaria and later raised in west suburban Boston. After attending Colgate University as an undergraduate , I spent some years in Ann Arbor where I received my MA in American Literature from the University of Michigan. I have lived in Santa Fe since 1994. In New Mexico you can see my work at Matrix Arts Santa Fe or Chroma Studios Gallery in Albuquerque. Outside New Mexico, I'm represented by Cloud & Star Gallery in Tubac Arizona's historic district.
Selected Gallery & Museum Shows: Member's Annual Juried Exhibit, Tubac Center for the Arts, Tubac, AZ November & December 2010 The Spirit of Place, Millicent Rogers Museum Taos, NM October 9 – November 14, 2010 Open Space: A View with Room & Little Gems, Open Space Visitor Center, Albuquerque, NM September – October 2010 Visions of Land, Sea & Sky, Matrix Arts Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM September 2010 Tubac Summer Gallery, Tubac Center for the Arts, Tubac, AZ July 2010 Never Think small:REDUX! climate/gallery, Long Island City, NY April 2010 COLLECT 8. The Center for Contemporary Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM. April 2010 Sunlight: Art Show with a Cause Gallery with a Cause, New Mexico Cancer Center, Albuquerque, NM March 14- June 5, 2010 Mixed Media Show Meow Wolf Art Gallery Santa Fe, NM February 2010 3rd Annual Open Hands, Open Hearts, The Edge Gallery, Santa Fe, NM December 2009 Fresh Paint, University of Arizona Museum of Art, November 2009 "High Road to Taos: Plein air Painters of New Mexico Paintout" Wilder
Nighttingale Gallery, Taos, NM August 2009 Seeking Solitude: Isolation in Ar Gallery, RFD, Swainsboro GA. May 2009 Faces & Places. Jennie Cooley Gallery, Santa Fe, NM. April 2009 Canyon Road Paint Out Show. Giacobbe-Fritz Fine ArtSanta Fe, NM October 2008 Painting the Land of Enchantment. Sumner & Dene Gallery, Albuquerque, NM. August 2008 COLLECT 8. The Center for Contemporary Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM. April 2008