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LIZ MANNS BIOGRAPHY
Lizabeth Manns grew up in Hollywood, Florida and was one of the first graduates of Nova, an experimental school for gifted children. She holds an MFA from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. Lizabeth is a Professor of Studio Art and Art History for Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Mo. She is deeply engaged in community efforts to educate the rural poor, as well aid the preservation of the unique French Colonial heritage of Sainte Genevieve County by volunteering at the Bolduc House museum as a living history instructor and rendering curatorial services for their collections, gratis.
Lizabeth was raised in Hollywood, in south Florida. She began a serious and permanent change in her artistic life in the 1990's. She is fascinated by light and reflections, and a home visit to the oceans she grew up with affected her profoundly. She began to paint the corals, fishes and turtles as she remembered them to be as a child growing up on the beaches of Florida. She lives in south Florida, when not teaching. The primary subjects of her work are the beautiful, magical sea creatures. Sea turtles are a recurring theme: when she was a child, there was one very ancient, grizzled old turtle living near the coast of Key West that she would see almost every month when visiting there. (The markings on his shell identified him.) She spent many happy, sunny afternoons in his gentle company, snorkeling above the turtle grass and corals off Smathers beach in Key West. He appears in many of her paintings, lolling on the surface above the golden coral. She doesn't restrict her subject matter to the Caribbean- other seas and oceans around the world with their wonderful creatures are also subjects. Her work is intended to bring the unseen wonders beneath the waves out for all to see.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
"I have an ongoing challenge in this type of artwork: to "get" both the organic lushness and color and sheer volume of textures of the coral reef environment, juxtaposed with the sometimes mathematical purity of the incredible patterns and saturated hues of the fishes and other creatures. It is a tremendous challenge to really "see" their elusive inner glow, their shifting colors and intricate patterns all at the same time. Capturing the mathematically precise patterns correctly is just one thing: getting the fishes to move and glow like they do in nature, and not have them flat like a tablecloth or a print, is my ultimate goal. I use color theory and some of the ideas utilized by the Impressionists concerning the properties of individual brush strokes. Watching the creatures move and seeing them alive is important to getting close to that, as it gives the real information needed for transcription into paint. Having each brush stroke become a real living part of a creature or its environment is paramount. I want the brush strokes to be seen, in their entirety. They have to be a sometimes delicate part of a pattern or shadow, or the momentary glint of light from a scale as well as the rough surfaces of corals. I have been told by some colleagues that actual lines and black and white do not really exist in nature- and that might work until you go under the water and are confronted with a different reality. This type of work is a serious technical and emotional challenge, but is also endlessly rewarding. Because it is impossible to set up an easel and plein air paint underwater, loving memory, fresh observation, and good photography must serve the art."
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