Cecily Barth Firestein "Follow your Bliss", Phoenix Gallery 5/22-6/15/13

Cecily Barth Firestein is an artist who paints large with gorgeous colors and exciting brushwork on rag papers. Her work involves multiple media that include collage, paint, cloth, pastel, charcoal, and other found two-dimensional materials. The compositions begin as monotypes using oil-based inks, and are then covered with a single tempera color. The structure grows as the finished painting becomes a recognizable, somewhat surrealistic scene incorporating cut-outs of familiar figures and objects.