Artist's Statement:

The paintings on display here represent my work over the last two years since my solo show in Germany.

Colors continue to be the most important element in the construction of my paintings. I have always been intrigued by color – by the juxtaposition of subtle tonal differences as well as bold contrasts of colors from different ends of the spectrum. Colors set the tone of my paintings and capture my feelings while painting – warm, tense or relaxed, joyful or frustrated but never neutral or indifferent.

The work shown here has evolved beyond reliance on color alone. I have learned that color can get me in trouble so that I may not be able to resolve a painting into a finished and complete piece of work. I am using strong lines and shapes to supply structure to my paintings and relief tension arising from the arrangement of colors. Several of the works in the exhibit incorporate patches of simple geometrical shapes. These have been cut from previous works and allow my paintings to grow in a new dimension, not only physically.

Many of the paintings on display are small in size. They are the result of a technique I have explored in recent months. I work on multiple of these smaller paintings at the same time and decide at the end how to arrange the individual paintings. The ability to combine or separate these pieces gives me another degree of freedom to create the desired effects in my work.

I have been told that the way I paint is very different form how I live my life. Whereas my daily life tends to be neat and organized, my paintings start out very chaotic. The finished works, however, represent the results of long and often arduous processes to achieve a complete and satisfying balance of the elements in each painting.

Monika A. Paris is an abstract painter working mostly with acrylic paint. Monika graduated from the University of Houston in 1990. Since coming to the United States in 1986 from Germany Monika has pursued creative endeavors including website design and for the last six years abstract painting. She began to study at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC, at Glen Echo in Maryland, and at the Art League School in Alexandria.

Most recently she was selected to participate in a project called Evolve Urban Arts Project which is an eight month series of exploring elements of art and design at the Pierce School in Washington, DC. Monika has shown her work in various solo shows in Germany and America as well as in juried group shows in the United States. She won the student award at the Art League School in June 2004 and received awards at juried shows at the Capitol Hill Workshop.

Her paintings are part of private collections in America, Germany, Tunis and France.

Monika lives in McLean Virginia with her husband and three children where she works at home in her Studio.