Cat Tesla

I love the outdoors and live on a lake 25 miles outside of Atlanta. The water is meditative and healing, where every moment one can feel the presence of a higher power. My paintings are inspired by my surroundings as well as what I perceive through my memories – some recent, others from childhood. I select images, which serve as archetypes of life experiences: a path, a tree I loved to climb. My formal education is based in science and graphic design. I think this is why I am compelled to divide a painting into sections of images, color, and texture. Multiple layers of acrylic and oil glazes, combined with handmade clay pieces (the tiles in my work that I make which I refer to as "cookies", and gold leaf, allow me to integrate all of the mediums I love to work in. My paintings are a process of exploration. I work with layers of thick and thin color, washed or scumbled over a textured surface. Traces are left by assorted marks, surfaces are wiped, dripped and spattered; all adding to an eventual sense of accumulation and the essence of time.