It is interesting that right now, I am working out of two places. I have two separate approaches to painting and I move from one to the other like I would move between two adjoining rooms. I think that one would be able to recognize “me” in both but only with some sincere effort. At a glance, I seem to be two very different people.
One body of work is all color and form and very romantic and idealistic in spirit. This is the most intuitive of the two. Here, I work from an unconscious source and the viewer experiences the piece, interprets the painting from their imagination. These pieces consist of a horizontal composition and since the horizon line is a given, are generally interpreted as landscapes. These are places created, escape routes I paint for myself as well as the viewer.
Then there is the vertical work, which began in color and has now moved into black & white work. Rotating the canvas from horizontal to vertical totally changed the game for me. It was no longer about what it looked like, or reminded one of but rather, all about emotion, composition, color and whatever magic occurs when a painting begins to speak for itself out of total , unapologetic abstraction. The work became more deliberate, but not in the sense that I had it all sketched out but more from an intention to face up to my demons, rather than escape from them. Some of the black & white verticals were born out of the genius of others, such as Mozart and Bach. I have recently started the Shout Box series which incorporates the starker elements of the vertical work with the more romantic tones of personal writing and shared memory.
It is hard to say whether the wall between these two rooms will ever be torn down but for now, I do enjoy the journey from one chamber to the other.
Constance Pappalardo
April 2008
Constance Pappalardo
was born in Lima, Peru in 1956. She moved to New York City at the age of eight and it was not long before that world of art and culture inspired her. At a very young age she even worked in oils. After high school, Ms. Pappalardo studied painting at The Art Student's League with Will Barnett, and subsequently continued her education at The School Of Visual Arts, in Manhattan.
In 1976 the artist began a long spiritual journey that took her on a long hiatus away from painting. But a few years ago she returned to her first love and since then has been painting prolifically and with much success. Pappalardo now lives in Cary, North Carolina. Her contemporary abstract watercolors have been featured in numerous galleries in Cary, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and other cities in North Carolina.
She is member of The Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh.
Ms. Pappalardo is the recipient of various art awards including the Cary Visual Art Purchase Award for "Muses II," which will now be on permanent display in the Cary Town Hall. Meanwhile, her painting "Portals II" was chosen to grace fund-raising post cards for the Center for Women's Health Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is represented in Raleigh, by ArtSource and her works are included in international private collections in England, Norway and Portugal.
She was chosen to be the signature artist for Cary’s 2007 Spring Daze Arts and Crafts Festival.
She is one of the founders of The Cary Art Loop.
Ms. Pappalardo is very involved in many charity art auctions, donating art throughout the years to such charitable events as Works of the HeArt/ action against AIDS , The Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity's Chair-ity among others.