BIO
Janet Maas Satz was born in Chicago and has resided in Lawrence, Kansas since 1989. She earned a BFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, an MA in Art Education from New York University, and a Doctor of Arts Fellowship, New York University. Satz is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts/Kansas Arts Commission Artist Fellowship and has received numerous exhibition awards for her paintings. Her work has been exhibited nationally and is included in public and corporate collections including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Housatonic Museum of Art, Conn., and the corporate headquarters of Sprint, General Electric, and Mercedes Benz. Satz is a former director of education at the Whitney Museum of American Art satellite in Stamford, Conn.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Fusing representation and abstraction, my work focuses on the relationship between the urban and natural environment. It is my intention that my collages, paintings, and prints, which incorporate the architecture, landscape, and environmental concerns of our times, generate thought-provoking portraits of our contemporary environment.
I have worked with a variety of methods and materials over a lengthy career. However, the use of mixed-media collage in both my urban and natural landscapes enables me to assemble seemingly disparate elements, culled from a wide range of sources, into a unified whole. The process of deconstructing and reconstructing my photographs, original prints, and drawings allows me to develop new multi-layered narrative images that are visually and metaphorically more complex. I use such visual devices as shadow, translucency, transparency, blurring, and superimposition to create a synthesis of memory, mystery, and imagination.
Janet Satz