Harrie Handler
Tucson, Arizona
Creating is my passion. My main focus is on acrylic painting and photography.
MessageHarrie still resides in her birthplace of Tucson, Arizona After attending one photography class in high school, she decided to pursue a career in teaching art.
During her university years, she studied with master photographers Jack Welpott, Todd Walker, and Harold Jones and was inspired by their work. Her volunteer work at the UA Center for Creative Photography allowed her the opportunity to meet Ansel Adams.
Harrie began a teaching career after graduation, teaching high school photography for seven years in the Tucson Unified School District during the day, and Art for Personal Development at night for Pima Community College. Her teaching continued for another 21 years.
After retirement, she was contracted to lead two commercial interior design projects, and was able to concentrate on her painting which is now her preferred art form. While her original emphasis was oil painting, she currently paints mostly in acrylic.
In her abstract paintings and photography, she is inspired daily by the shapes and forms, textures, shadows and color seen in reflections of water, clouds, human figures, peeling paint, wood and ordinary objects.
Harrie is an active member of the Contemporary Art Society (CAS), the International Society of Acrylic Painters (ISAP), the Southern Arizona Artist Guild (SAAG), a Juried member of the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild (SAWG), and an Agave member of the Contemporary Artists of Southern Arizona (CASA).
Statement
The act of creating is my passion. Creating an abstract with acrylics is an engaging experience in which I rely on the fundamental elements of shapes, forms, shadows, colors, values and textures. It’s a process of the addition and subtraction of these elements until they unite in a fascinating vision. Because of my background in photography, my abstracts will usually have the same type of compositions.
The constant balancing of aethetics is my goal and I am thrilled when viewers tell me what they see in the works because everyone has different life experiences which filter their perceptions.
I am inspired by the colors and shapes in water, clouds, wood, oil spills, peeled paint, rust, shadows and everyday objects. My wish is that the viewer will see something of beauty that is unique to them and stir their emotions, hopefully in a desired way.
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