Dixie Friend Gay Portals of Perception

The paintings capture moment when nature is at the cusp of transformation, the instantaneous state of light and atmosphere against the slower background of natural time, and how vision shifts as we move through space-time. The large paintings engage the viewers’ peripheral perception evoking a feeling of motion, of falling, or spinning in vortexes.

The works on wood panel address our perception or limited vision, exploring small worlds. The surfaces of the paintings are infused with mica particles, and as the angle of light changes there is a subtle complementary color shift.

The camera, Photoshop, the electron microscope images and the digital projector provide a template for the work. Then come  meditative hours of applying paint, sanding, puzzling the shapes, defining the colors, and shifting the values. Central to these works is the divining of an altered state of consciousness, a celebration of disorientation. The elation of nature, distorted through the psyche, twisted by technology, is echoed in the surfaces and shifting colors.

Dixie Friend Gay is an accomplished artist with an impressive exhibition history.Her art has been featured in many galleries and museums including the Bronx Museum, Allan Stone Gallery, and COFA Gallery in New York and the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis. Gay’s work is also included in the permanent collections of The Boston Public Library; The Kienholz Collection, Hope, Idaho;Verizon, Dallas; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, and the Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont.

For the last 10 years she has been creating art for public projects. One of her most recognized projects is the Houston Bayou at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport.The installation is comprised of a 73 feet long glass mosaic mural, columns, and the terrazzo floor with bronze inserts. It has won recognition and national awards as one of the best public art projects in theUS.

In 2003 she was namedTexas State Artist of the Year by the Texas Commission for the Arts and Artist of the Year by Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts.

Gay is presently working on public art projects for the Port of Miami, the New IndianapolisAirport, and The Woodlands.Her work will be included in theContemporary Houston exhibition at Shanghai Museum of Fine Art in Shanghai, China this summer.

She earned a Master’s degree in Studio Arts from New York University in 1989