Artist's Statement

 

I explore the beauty and complexity of expressive, deliberate and subconscious mark-making. Spontaneously following these suggestions of line, pattern, color, and texture, I create an abstract narrative with a subtle hint or implication of a thought or experience.

 

What does it mean for a work to be finished? What’s the purpose? When I was a beginner, I used the formal picture elements to judge when a work was finished. I think as I mature as a painter I have come to realize that the process is the product. Maybe those picture elements are ingrained in my subconscious and I’m not aware of them. I am strictly using my intuition – conscious vs. subconscious. Maybe good abstraction is by nature an incomplete act.

 

If I start feeling too comfortable or too finished with a painting, I will purposefully mess it up, maybe with an off color or shape or line. Then I have to start again. The more times I start over, I think the richer it becomes.

 

September 2015

 

 

 

Artist’s Biography

 

Tracey J. Russell was born and raised outside of Kansas City. She was influenced by her father, Tom Russell, a painter and art professor, and by her stepmother, an art  history professor. Tom was a Regionalist whose mentor was Thomas Hart Benton prior  to the second world war. He recently passed away at the age of 97, painting nearly to the end. Art has always been a big part of Tracey’s life. She received her BFA from Baker University in Kansas. While in college, she studied art  in France and Italy. After college, she moved to Denver to study design at the Colorado Institute of Art. After graduating from CIA, she realized her love of the fine arts, and took a position as an art consultant with C.G. Rein Galleries at 21st and Market, while continuing to paint. In 1993, she opened The Russell Gallery at 1660 Market Street.  During this time she married and had a daughter, Camille. Tracey closed The Russell Gallery in 1996. While raising her daughter outside of Morrison, she continued to paint and study.

In recent years, Tracey has returned to downtown Denver. Her paintings have appeared consistently throughout the Santa Fe Art District. Tracey maintains her studio on South Broadway in Denver, and has begun teaching workshops. Tracey Russell lives in downtown Denver. Her latest works are rooted in the extant urban landscape, reflecting the contrasts between past and future, decay and rebirth, expediency and repurposing, and in both the disregard for and glorification of the history of Denver. Subject matter is irrelevant; hers are works of lines, marks, patterns,  movement and rhythm. She is proud to show at the Core New Art Space at 900 Santa Fe Drive, Denver.

 

'September 2015

 

 

 

Recent Shows & Events

 

Solo Exhibitions

 

"Luminosity," Core New Art Space, Denver, CO 2018

"Modifiable Mark," Core Art Space, Denver, CO, October, 2017

"Organic Indulgence, Core Art Space, Denver, CO August, 2016

“The Line,” Core New Art Space, Denver, March 2015

“Translucent Flashbacks,"Core New Art Space, Denver, CO, August 2014

“Undercurrent," Sync Gallery, Denver, CO, April 2013

“Remembering and Forgetting,” Sync Gallery, Denver, CO, April 2012

 

 

Invited and Juried Exhibitions

 

Pulchritudinous, Foolproof Gallery,  Denver, CO 2019

Boulder Artists,  Edge Gallery, Denver, CO  2019

Members’ Show, Core New Art Space, Denver, January 2015

Black & White Show, Niza Knoll Gallery, Denver, July 2014

Unfinished, The Pattern Shop Studio, ASLD, Denver, July 2014

Fall Into Art, Faculty Show, ASLD, Denver, November 2014

DelecTABLE, Carson Gallery/ASLD Exhibit Space, Denver, January 2014

Members’ Show, Core New Art Space, Denver, January 2014

“Russells’ 150+," Emporia Arts Counsel, Emporia, KS, September 2012

All Colorado Art Show, Curtis Arts & Humanities Center, Greenwood Village, 2010-2015

-Juror’s Choice Award 2015

Two Women Show, Vertigo Art Space, Denver, 2009

Sync Gallery, Denver, CO, 2011

“Red” juried show, Curtis Arts & Humanities Series, Greenwood Village, CO, All Colorado Art Show

2010 Boxcar Gallery, Denver, CO, juried show (Jim Robichon) 

Curtis Arts & Humanities Series, Greenwood Village, CO, All Colorado Art Show

HGTV Winter Park Dream Home (acquired two pieces) 2007

Buell Theater Gallery, Boettcher Concert Hall, Denver, CO 2007

Buell Theater Gallery, Boettcher Concert Hall, Denver, CO 2006

 

 

 

ASLD Demo & Dialogue Series 

 

Meininger Art Materials, March 2015

Madden Museum of Art, August 2013

 

 

 

Teaching 

 

ASLD, Denver, September 2013 – present

Blackridge Artists’ School, Englewood September 2015

Penn Street Studios, Denver, September 2015

 

 

 

Corporate Placements

 

Newmont Mining, Greenwood Village, CO

OPTION I Nutrition Solutions, Centennial, CO

Treece Alfrey Musat, PC, Denver, CO

Reilly Pozner, LLP, Denver, CO

McConnell Fleishner Houghtaling, LLC, Denver, CO