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Margie MirellArtist Statement: Painting is a form of communication to me%u2014personal and soulfully intimate. My paintings are an alternative way of communicating and connecting with the viewer. My long-term goal is to elicit an emotional response from the viewer that stirs something inside of them. It does not have to mirror my feelings, but the response is uniquely theirs. That is important to me. If that happens, I feel I%u2019ve succeeded. My work has spanned many years. Although, there were years where I did not paint, my desire has always been to complete my life as an artist. To that end, I attended the fine arts program at California State University at Northridge graduating magna cum laude. I was fortunate to find inspiration from the talented artists who were my teachers: Carson Gladson, Dr. Irving Block, and Hans G. Burkhardt, the Abstract Expressionist. It was Burkhardt%u2019s constant pressure to move from realism to abstraction that continues to stay with me. The Expressionists and Impressionists who also influenced me are: Chagall, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, and%u2014my favorite%u2014the Colorist Helen Frankenthaler.Five years after graduation, I left the fine art world as I struggled as a starving artist. I spent some years as a businesswoman and ultimately pursued a graduate degree in psychology. As I entered into my graduate program, I wanted to learn how to help people. I also secretly desired to take the many life experiences and emotions I was exposed to as a psychologist and express them through my art.So, here I am, decades later, putting my thirty-plus years of experience as a psychologist onto the canvas. My process is a great delight: to express in this exceptionally meditative way my inner feelings, thoughts, and experiences. I allow myself to %u201cbe here now.%u201d I approach the canvas without a preconceived idea. I notice what I%u2019ve experienced for the last few days. Then I paint. Also, the quality of the %u201cstroke,%u201d movement on the canvas to capture energy and light is especially important to me. My approach is an expression of the %u201ccollective unconscious%u201d experience that demands its moment to be unleashedMy tools are canvas, oil-based pastels, and water-based oils.Official website: margiemirellart.com.margiemirellart.comMOST MAGAZINE - ISSUE 55 55