Denise Souza Finney
biography
I have been pursing my artwork for the past 15 years. Oil paints had always been my medium of choice, until recently; I have discovered the amazing attributes of acrylic paint. The figure has always been of special interest to me. Through high school and college I studied jazz dance and ballet and had the sincere intention of pursuing a career as a dancer. However, I was just as passionate about painting, and it was necessary to give my full attention to either one or the other. But having once been a dancer, and now a practicing yogi, I am very aware of the beauty and expressiveness of movement through the body. I prefer to show the gesture of a pose, and have more interest in the qualities of the paint and what that brings to the gesture. Still life with fruits, vegetables, and flowers are also subjects that interest me. They are very much like the body, but easier to incorporate my own color relationships into, and since, I am an avid gardener, I have a ready supply of models. The flamenco dancer is of particular interest to me because of the passion and tragedy that is rooted in that tradition of performance. My father is Portuguese, from the Azores islands, my Mother is Italian. Somewhere in between those two ancestral backgrounds, flamenco song and dance sits close to my spirit.
My art education started in college, but most of my pursuit of drawing and painting came after that primary education. In many ways I consider myself self-taught and value the process of trial and error that has led me to my own individual vision of what it means to paint and to be an artist. I attempt to portray some part of my own language in which my thoughts have visual dimension. I strive for simplicity in my work and a relationship of color combined with a sense of movement that will create a strong emotional picture.
I live with my husband Ross in a little town in Southern Oregon named Ashland. We are surrounded by mountains, art, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and a small University. My studio is a converted one hundred year old barn and both the house and the studio are surrounded by gardens. There is no better path in life than to pursue art, whatever your art may be.