Patricia Mayhew-Hamm : Abstract Expressionist Extraordinaire

After chemo
Mixed Media
Laurie Bieze Permanent Art Collection
 
Untitled
Mixed Media
Laurie Bieze Permanent Art Collection
 
Creativity refound
Mixed Media
Laurie Bieze Permanent Art Collection

These paintings represent my struggle with cancer.  I was diagnosed with Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia in December of 2017 with a rare blood cancer,.  I started chemo at Rochester last year (2018) for four months, and the worst part of it is that it seemed to interfere with my creativity.  I feel that I am lost without my creativity.  At first I didn’t want to go to my studio, but finally I did, and I’d try to paint, and everything looked horrible.  I’d toss everything I did.  I kept trying.  Then, after many months, I started working on After Chemo. The part on the lower left, the dark, area, is my cancer, and I kept working through it, and finally broke out into the center area, and then broke into the light, and into orange circles. It was such a joyous breakthrough.  Then shortly after, I started the second one.  It is spacious and generous with empty space. The big orange circles were so important. Not crowed with thought or worries.  It felt free. My students thought it was too empty, but I disagreed, I needed the free empty space: to breathe. Then, the third intimate one, and it is my happy place.  This one is just pure joy. I think the lines and circles are happy and carefree.

My cancer numbers are down. It is not curable, but very treatable. I feel well and blessed. And, yes, I am painting again

Artist Statement

When beginning a painting, I usually have a coloration in mind, but not necessarily a subject. I very rarely draw anything on the paper or canvas.  I don’t want to be limited by pre-set ideas.  Some of my work ends up completely different than it started.  It can go through several metamorphoses before I am happy with it.

I am not at all interested in depicting a perfect likeness of nature because I feel in realism there are no surprises.  I find no challenges there. What you see is always the same, whereas, in non-objective and abstract work, there are hopefully, new things to discover every time you look at it. I want to interpret what I see and feel, by the use of design, color, texture contrast and composition.   I am very interested in the creative process and how we go through it.

I create what I call my three C’s: color, composition and contrast, which I also stress to my students.  I believe a good work of art needs all three.

For many years I’ve been adding various media to my work as I am no longer a purist.  I use watercolor, gouache, fluid acrylic, inks, (colored, acrylic, and India, watercolor pencils, craft paints, metallic powders.  I find the plethora of acrylic products that are available to be very exciting and challenging.  There are products that produce textures that are crackle, stringy, thick, opaque, coarse, and slick. The textures and challenges are endless for experimentation. There are also new colors that are intense and vibrant.  I love the new Yupo paper, which is actually plastic.  I find it extraordinarily exciting as it is completely unpredictable and every painting is a surprise. Nature has always been my inspiration but I choose to interpret it differently.  I would like the viewer to be able to go into my work, to see and feel the depth.  I hope you find that my work stirs your imagination. I have been an artist all my life, and have been selling my art in galleries, or trying to (!!) for 50 years.  I could no more stop being an artist, than I could stop breathing. I believe that all the art that I create is a gift from God. 

Artist Bio

Patricia’s first teaching experience was to teach crafts at age 11 to her fellow 4-H’ers: basket weaving.  She taught crafts in HS in the summers for the Moline IL Park District. Her first art fair was in 1971 in Mundelein IL exhibiting: oil paintings. Patricia has been a practicing artist for 50 years, teaching and participating in shows and galleries. Her greatest joy is teaching classes and workshops to adults, and her special students in her studio. She has produced 1200 pieces of art since 1990. Patricia has taken classes from many nationally known teachers over the years. She has done numerous talks and demonstrations to various organizations on technique, art and color. Patricia has taught workshops in Florida, Missouri, Illinois, and many areas in Wisconsin. Her paintings are in homes and offices across the country. Patricia has had numerous one woman shows. She has been featured artist on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Spectrum West a number of times. She won a national merit award for her painting of “The Private Hell of Migraine” from The National Headache Foundation.  That painting is in a collection that toured the country.

In June of 2012, the Eau Claire Regional Arts Council honored Patricia by surprising her with an award for her support in the visual arts.  In 2014 she was chosen by the Art Council as the featured artist for their yearly Jubilee fund raiser. She started numbering her paintings in 1990 and now, 30 years later, has produced over 1,150 original works of art. She has fostered the arts in northwest Wisconsin and has participated in the Eau Claire Regional Art Center’s ongoing mission.  She has been a part of the Banbury Art Crawl in Eau Claire Wisconsin since its inception.  She was also one of the artists responsible for the forming and continuing participation of the Art Meander art crawl in northwest Wisconsin.

In 1996, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011 and 2014 she was a featured artist on Wisconsin Public radio’s Spectrum West. She has done numerous demonstrations and talks to area organizations. She is currently represented by: 200 Main Gallery, Eau Claire, WI 54701, Dancing Bird, Cumberland, WI, Brickyard Pottery and Gallery, Comstock, WI, Her own studio Artistic Innovations, Chetek, WI 5478  Patricia is available for art workshops and classes for adults. She teaches a nontraditional, loose and spontaneous art technique,. Workshops and classes are always in the planning.  Please inquire as to scheduling one in your area.  If you can provide a location and students interested in a non-objective view of watercolor, acrylic or alcohol ink painting (often on Yupo-polypropylene), she would be glad to usher you into this realm. Patricia maintains her studio gallery, Artistic Innovations, and she teaches workshops locally and classes in her Chetek studio to a group of loyal painterly artists. She has a great love of teaching art to adults who have a bit of experience and the desire. Many of her students are retired art teachers. She lives in Chetek, Wi. with her husband David and two cats, Franny and Daisy.

Interested in a work of art exhibited in one of our virtual galleries or exhibits? It may be available for purchase. To purchase a work of art, contact Rose, our Visual and Literary Arts Manager.

All artwork pricing is set be the artists and is non-negotiable and non-refundable. All artwork sales are by commission with Pablo Center at the Confluence. Your purchase supports our endeavors to present quality visual art programming that is free and open to the public.

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