Tina LeMarque: Artist and Writer
I started painting and making things when I was a small girl. From my teenage years my parents informed me that I was an artist, and urged me to follow that path, no matter how hard it might be. My lifelong focus as an artist has been to create work that emerges from dreams, visions.
My imagery comes out of my deepest self through my hands from ancient aquifers
that connect to the greater collective unconcious. I dive down inside, and dredge
up symbols and memories that link many cultures, many times. I bring the old myths, stories and icons back up to the surface and revision them for contemporary times. I
make work about women, about our lives, about our struggles and our strength, about
our extraordinary wisdom and our ways of
knowing.
When a Hopi makes a kachina that is meant for their family, it is not a merely an intriguing piece of art. There is a spirit
residing in the doll. That is also the case with the work I make. There is something very real moving beneath the picture
plane. Some people sense the presence of something "other" when they visually engage with the work. If this is your
experience when viewing this art, go with it. You're not losing your mind; it's really there.
Runaway: Staging by the artist; photodocumentation by Robert Denison