Nancy Doyle Fine Art
DISCLAIMER FOR ARTIST PROFILES
Since I started my art website in 2000, I have included individual artist profiles to show the multiplicity of aesthetic viewpoints, and to inspire site visitors, thinking that presenting specific artists would be better than generalized writing about art. The artist profiles on my site are meant as introductions to the artists, rather than as comprehensive studies. My viewpoint is more that of a fellow artist than an educator, critic or art historian; I want to present the artists as much as possible in their own voices - found from interviews, their own writings, and from those who knew them. I include biographical information to place the art and artist in a historical context, rather than as factual biography. My intention is to try to represent the spirit of the artist and their art, rather than the letter. In fact, if there is one thing I want visitors to take away from my site, it is that art is about spirit and not letter. Almost every other aspect of our lives is about letter, using the left side of our brains to precisely measure, classify, analyze (exactitude). The arts are about the right side of the brain so to speak (the nonverbal, unmeasurable, intuitive truth), and as such are necessary and extremely valuable, especially in our programmed and technological society. As sources for the profiles, I use the Internet, books, art magazines, and remembered bits from art school and a lifetime of reading and learning about art. Sometimes this results in factual inaccuracies of details as taken from various sources. I apologize for any errors thus present in the profiles, and always try to research from a wide variety of reputable sources to avoid this. (In two of the profiles - Faith Ringgold and Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the artists themselves contacted me with corrections and suggestions.) My strength, I feel, comes from my attempt to convey each artist's aesthetic and expressive intentions, drawing on my own experience as an artist. I have tried to show the significance of the artists' work, based on my own perceptions from many years of art study. Please do not depend on the factual accuracy of these profiles for academic papers and school reports. There are many other sources on the Web and in libraries whose express purpose is historical accuracy of names and dates, such as www.artcyclopedia.com, the Encyclopedia Britannica, etc. These will give you facts; my purpose is to try to explore the intentions of the artists, and the meaning of the artworks.
Nancy Doyle
2008