Lynn Thorpe

The earth becomes foldable, or twistable, or spindled or blows aside like a curtain to reveal a pattern behind it. What I do is always based on observation with the caveat that elements of these observations are intellectually and intuitively re-composed to create visual works that comment on the ways in which we live our lives on this earth. Versions of Carl Jung's four main psychological functions-- observing, sensing, thinking, and feeling, seem to define my ways of working. There is always a cerebral component, an observational component and an emotional component. While some works are planned, laid out according to the golden section, colors chosen and mixed in advance, and carefully executed (mainly the landscapes or riffs on landscape), others are free, spontaneous play with the media and the process (mainly the drawings). In the process of working (whether in the controlled or spontaneous manner) intuition or gut feeling, may assert themselves and want push the work in one way or another. I have learned that I better listen to this intuition--I call it the voice in my head--if I don't, I end up having to wipe out and go back to where I should have.

Lynn Thorpe grew up in a small Wyoming town at the edge of the Black Hills. She studied French and English at the University of Washington (BA 1968); Art at the Canberra School of Art, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia (1975-77); the University of Wyoming (2nd BA and MFA 1983); and printmaking at the Canadian Institute of Non-Toxic Printmaking, Peace River, and Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, (1994 and 1997). She has worked in a variety of positions, both academic and non-academic, in Canada, Australia, Japan, and the US. She became a member of the art faculty of Northwest College in Powell in 1984, where she taught 2D design and design: color, painting, and printmaking. Retiring in 2004, she began painting full time when she wasn't taking temporary teaching positions, odd jobs, serving on exhibit committees, a variety of boards and volunteering at local art museums/centers. She has exhibited regularly in the US since 1983 (in Toyko in 1980 and London in 1986). Her work is in several collections, including the Brinton Museum, Big Horn, WY; The Wyoming State Art Museum; the South Dakota Art Museum, the Rapid City Regional Airport, Raven Industries, Sioux Falls, SD; and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, MO.

2-D, Collage/Mixed Media, Drawing, Painting (all materials)