panel from Interrupted Self-Portrait, ©
2004,
34"x24", oil on canvas (1 of 5 panels)
BIO: Linda Fawcett
- M.F.A. North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas),1980. Post-grad work at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas Tech University, and the San Francisco Art Institute.
- B.F.A. from Texas Tech University, 1977.
Fawcett's 40-year teaching career with Hardin-Simmons University spanned Fall 1981- Spring 2020, teaching Painting, Drawing, Illustration, a few graphic design classes, Art History and Honors Aesthetics before retiring as Professor of Art Emerita, occasionally still teaching art history online. Biennially 1997-2022, Fawcett also led art study tours to various places in Europe (Italy, Spain, Greece, England, Ireland) with exclusive emphasis on Florence, Italy as a hub since 2013. She says the highlight of her teaching career was the four months when she and five students lived and learned in Florence during the Spring 2016, in partnership with the Santa Reparata International School of Art. Primarily through grants, Fawcett also traveled to parts of Canada, France, Belgium, Holland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Turkey, and Israel.
Besides teaching, Fawcett has of course been a practicing visual artist all her life, with a career record of 70 regional and national juried exhibitions (winning special awards in 25 of them), 15 solo exhibitions, and over 50 invitational group shows.
ARTIST STATEMENT (GENERAL OEUVRE)
I have used text, animal metaphor and/or photo-real image fragments to show epiphany, paradox, duality, connection and conflict that I feel or observe in dreams or the external world. By means of drawing and painting media and/or digital photo-montage on paper or canvas, I rely heavily on intuition to guide choice and juxtaposition of images. Text, title or verbal explanations are most often conceived after images are arranged. Over the years, sources for content have included dreams, folklore, cinema, psychology, archeology, comparative religion East and West, shamanism, autobiography, the philosophical suggestions of modern science, and the ongoing battle of mankind versus Nature.
A turning point was the discovery of the ancient Greek Heraclitean rule of enantiodromia—that a thing will convert into its opposite, inferring that by natural law metamorphosis is positive and hierarchical arrangements are not fixed. Dialectical pairings in my work have included ecological issues, war and peace, body and spirit, cerebral and emotional, external and internal, freedom and bondage, love and separation, past and present, truth and memory, and a reprises of life, death and rebirth.
Looking back, I think the first half or so of my art-making career dealt mostly with self-exploration, asking a whole lot of questions: about my origins – both genealogical and spiritual, comparative studies in religion and mythology, and establishing personal philosophies and beliefs. I recommend this to anyone: a glorious time of exploration that for me fueled decades of artistic expression. I read a lot from a lot of disciplines. A little past midway in my studio career, my artistic focus turned outward to the world itself, especially in terms of that which I believed needed to be culturally/politically addressed and changed. Over time my artwork has reflected my continuously evolving value system that recognizes and respects the inter-relatedness of life.
TEACHING STATEMENT
I teach my students to:
- Perceive the visible world without preconceived ideas.
- Design with emphasis on selectivity of form and space according to intent.
- Reach within in order to achieve uniqueness of content.
- Experiment with media as a way to express chosen content and as a means to generate content.
- Be well read and aware of contemporary trends and issues in art.
- Maintain an open attitude about what art can be and that any format can be used to evoke viewer response.
- Develop self-confidence and an attitude of constructive competitiveness in order to become increasingly independent.
