Artist Statement
Hendrica Regez is a versatile artist who paints with acrylics and also creates art from recycled materials as well as wearable art. Her paintings are inspired by the patterns found in Nature, which she expresses as stylized compositions of organic shapes filled with highly saturated color. A look at Hendrica’s unique biography and the sources and inspirations behind her work, reveal an artist who has marshaled passion, intellectual rigor, and solid technique to create a genuinely original body of work.
Hendrica , aka 'Rica', grew up in a small village in Germany, and early on became absorbed by the patterns all around us: the shapes, colors and cycles, that are repeated in all aspects of life and are universally understood. Taught about materials and tools by her father, an artist working as an architect and her grandmother, a seamstress, she developed a deep appreciation and understanding of artisan labor and craftsmanship. Further study and experimentation led her to develop her own acrylic technique as a vehicle for exploring the patterns of Nature. She is now exploring a new direction in her work: using quilt patterns with their associations of comfort and wholesomeness, as a framework for social commentary.
Her nontraditional use of acrylics combines the spontaneity of watercolors with the texture of impasto. It creates three-dimensional layers of color with varying degrees of opacity and translucency. Her style is uniquely her own, and builds on her studies of symbols and modern art movements. She has invented her own iconographic language to communicate concepts and emotions.
“I always wanted to paint to express my wonder at the shapes and patterns that can evoke such strong responses in us. There is such beauty in Nature, and at the same time, Nature always has a darker side. In my paintings I represent that with the tension between the colors and shapes,” says Hendrica.
Drawing on her experiences as a mother, engineer and environmentalist, she incorporates into her work a variety of theoretical ideas, thus infusing it with another range of textures, beyond the pictorial. The desire to nurture, mastery of the materials and mathematical concepts, such as geometry and proportions, with their Buddhist and Jungian associations, and a Zen-like, “less is more”, approach are especially important to her paintings. Such a range of influences serves to broaden her work, giving it a more fluid, open-ended character that invites the viewer to appreciate it in his/her own way.
The unique combination of elements Hendrica Regez brings to her work – artistic, personal and professional – gives her the credibility of an original. While each individual piece of hers certainly “speaks for itself”, when seen in the context of the artist’s background, ideas, and singular technique, it clearly gains a degree of vitality and significance that indicates the true measure of her work.
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Hendrica Regez
