I am a self-taught abstract artist living in Richmond, Virginia. During my early years, I demonstrated a natural aptitude for drawing, writing, and music, but chose to pour my energies into classical ballet training. The pursuit of a creative and purposeful life led me to travel extensively, work professionally with survivors of trauma, serve as a birth doula, teach yoga and meditation, and share my love for dance as a ballet teacher and choreographer. A well-worn body adapting to the aches and physical limitations of age naturally led me back to the visual arts – specifically, abstract painting.
My creative process walks the tightrope between chaos and control. I generously apply texture to the canvas using various pastes, sand, textiles, and mediums. The impromptu result of the texturing process instructs me where form will take shape. Color erupts in layers of ink, acrylic, and oil, applied with brushes, sponges. Pops of metal leaf and glass bead capture the eye.
This work is influenced by my career as a ballet teacher and choreographer. Creating a painting is much like setting a piece of choreography on dancers: Despite my original vision, the paint, tools, and materials possess a mind and body of their own, as do the unique minds and bodies of dancers. I surrender to this collaborative improvisation, and allow the magic of the unexpected to erupt upon the “stage” of the canvas.
Nadine Dorrington 