ARTIST STATEMENT My work tends towards the abstract or semi-abstract and is substantially influenced by my interest in patterns found in the natural environment and scientific imagery. Inspirations range from the macro scale--patterns created by the interplay of geographic features with landuse and geology, especially as shown on maps, aerial photos, and satellite imagery--to the stunning close-ups of minerals, insects, and cell tissues as revealed by an electron microscope. My fascination with aerial imagery goes back to my early childhood in Germany. My parents had a "Luftaufnahme" which showed a house on the outskirts of town surrounded by fields, rivers, lakes, roads, and forests and I remember the moment when my mind resolved the structure as our home and the adjacent landscape features as my extended playground. When I first started to paint, I was consumed with trying to produce realistic looking trees. And while trees are still thematically related to my current work, my style has become less and less representational focusing mainly on shape and color. At the same time, I have gradually moved from smaller works to larger canvases which allows me to incorporate scale as yet another compositional element. I love working with all types of media but prefer acrylic and oil for my larger paintings while my smaller works lend themselves to gouache and watercolor. I also enjoy printmaking and use this medium to explore compositions that combine representational and abstract themes with often highly distorted perspectives. My creative process typically begins when I become aware of a particular color or shape and then trying to capture the essence of these characteristics in a balanced composition. While the end result is almost always different from what I originally set out to do, the marks and overall qualities of my work do reflect the original kernel of inspiration. In the past, I tended to work very deliberately  but am currently exploring a less constrained approach. Artists who influence my work are numerous and include German Expressionists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, and Paul Klee; New York Abstract Expressionists including Willem de Kooning; Bay Area Figurative artists, especially Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, David Park, Joan Brown, and Nathan Olivera; as well as printmakers Ando Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai, and just about every contemporary artist. Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to learn more about my work. --Rita Winkler