Wendy S. Rolfe
ARTIST STATEMENT
The current paintings that were chosen for Intimate Exchange are nostalgic in nature combined with a forgotten fire, inspiration, and emotional surrender.
This is a portion of a series of paintings that I have been working on for the past three years. The unexpected recent death of my mother has brought me to a place so lost and transitional that it has affected my work with a yearning for the past. I have also been "surprised by joy" (as C.S. Lewis puts it) in the great influence of my daughter’s unforeseen profound and fast talent. Thérèse’s paintings aroused me from a creative slumber to a desire to accelerate my imagination and ride a fast and fun wave with her. Both of us share the impact of the intense life and paintings of Joan Mulgrew, mother-in-law and grandmother to whom we dedicate this show.
My paintings have always been wrought with dream fragments and spiritual psychology. However, I find myself reaching out with more urgency beyond the ephemeral to the unknowing of my heart in my work.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Wendy S. Rolfe was born in Massachusetts in 1958. She pursued painting under independent instructors early in her career and studied fashion and design. She graduated in 1985 with a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Parsons School of Design in New York. She also studied at Parsons Paris, the Academy of Art University in California, and the University of Tampa in Florida. In 2017, she took a four-year reprieve from her studio work to study Software Design at Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta, Iowa. She is a board member and curator for Voices Productions in Dubuque. Wendy and Thérèse have created multiple murals as part of the Voices Productions' mural project. Wendy's work has been included in significant regional, national, and international exhibitions and can be found in many public collections. She has a home studio in Peosta where she lives with her husband Sam Mulgrew.
