ESTELLE KESSLER YARINSKY
"What is awareness? When I first wanted to record my impressions in line, color, and form, my parents encouraged these efforts, nurturing the child's nature. There followed a lifetime of making artwork.
Today, portraits of historical figures are central to my work. Again, I ask myself: Why? Alerted to the newly discovered information from the Civil Rights and Woman's Movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and with time to travel to distant lands, I started to identify with women in history who had been overlooked by the general public. Beginning with family, I enjoyed the research process-- where one clue led to another, one person suggested another who could be helpful-- and I enjoyed peeling away layers of tissue to reveal delicious nuggets of information. Stitched with printed and textured fabrics, each portrait is surrounded by "props" that tell the story of an exemplary life." - Estelle Kessler Yarinsky, 2005 |