RANDI STRAND - Artist statement

Forgotten images are manipulated, and then preserved in a space that alludes to a threshold between the real world and the infinite universe. A sense of nostalgia is melded with a contemplation of eternity. The subjects in the portraits become immortalized in a space that is familiar in its generality, but ethereal in its aesthetic.

I take elements of historic photographs out of their previous context and combines them with digital contemporary photographic techniques and artistic mediums. These include digital and hand painting, compositing, and drawing.

My work also focuses on the psychological states attained by being lost in the aesthetics of poetry, music and other creative mediums.

The lyrical nature of the work lends itself to aspects of illustration and design mingled with the scale, techniques and studio practices of fine art making.  I capture dream like impressions and introspective moments from life that, when interpreted in my painting, make for a slightly abstracted representation of the world around me. The compositions employ traditional elements of painting concerned with composition, light and dark, color and form yet depart from representational painting with elements of text and unusual color shifts.

A collage of images emerges in the work, placing the viewer in a very personal vantage point of my subject matter. Ethereal states frozen in each piece capture states of mind that are beautifully unresolved.

BIOGRAPHY

Randi Strand is an Norwegian artist and she was born and raised in a small town in Valdres with only a few hundreds of souls.

Strand has done a number of exhibitions, she is represented by several professional galleries and has a large audience. Strand works with photography, digital artwork, collage, acrylic paint, oil crayon, mixed media and lithography. She experiments with different techniques, which together becomes her personal expression.