Statement
My work combines my love for nature and its ceaseless impacts of changing color, temperature, and drama, with the practice of being in the studio among collections of wild foraging. This creates a focused and intuitive visual translation of experiential reflection. It is a message of quiet disruption. Despite the whirling storm raging all around, I am here.

Using unconventional natural and fabricated materials and tools, I have created peace offerings: visual moments of distraction to quiet the mind and soothe the heart. I invite the viewer to rest one's mind in a snippet of calm, to disrupt the chaos of the status quo and simply be. We need quiet disruption.

Offered here are my curated combinations of painting, printing, and construction using foraged and conventional materials. Going through the motions of composing images from collected material to concocting recipes for paints and inks from ground spices, nuts, shells, and clay— I am lost in the rhythm and moved to an intuitive state of making, becoming one with the process. Images on paper stand alone as constructed expressions or are joined to canvas and panel, along with lumber and driftwood, bark and foliage to center the attention and refocus the gaze.

My work is a continued exercise in bridging processes, concerns for the environments we share, and the discovery of visual signal and messaging through my practice. As an environmental advocate, social activist, and reflective practitioner, I find myself looking ahead and backward simultaneously. I am always curious and constantly considering the relationship between intention and action, action and results.

Bio
Luanne E Witkowski works in a wide range of media and reflective social practice. Using mixed materials and processes, her paintings, prints, and multi-media constructions are observations of the intersection of the natural world and humanity. Guided by her own personal experiences in nature and in urban settings, Witkowski creates environmental and site-specific installations, and her pieces reflect her curiosity and interest in the ephemeral vs the eternal.

Her works are in collections throughout the United States and abroad. She has been a member of the Kingston Gallery in Boston since 2005 and is affiliated with various galleries both nationally and beyond. Her organization affiliations include the United South End Artists, Mission Hill Artist Collective, and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. Witkowski is a recipient of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Lifetime Achievement in Art & Commerce Commendation, UMB Faculty Award, and Wellfleet Boathouse AIR.

In addition to her studio practice, she is the Assistant Design Studio Director, faculty and facilitator for the MassArt mini-residency at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, LR-MFA Mentor and 2019 AIR at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She teaches Creative Thinking in the Critical & Creative Thinking (CCT) graduate program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.