FRANCIE HESTER

Strata Series

“I have come to understand the ebb and flow of creating work in the quiet of a studio. From 2001 to present, I have worked on a series titled Strata. This series grew out of a deafening silence that I felt after the Twin Towers went down. My world, our world stopped. The studio went silent. I stripped my work of all imagery, and began to paint what I like to think of as chants — a spiritual beginning. One note, one color, one strip. If I painted anything that I thought was too precious or beautiful, I stripped it away. Was it missed? Was it there? This is the beginning from which the ‘Strata Series’ has evolved. Day by day the monumental and the precious are wrapped together, forming a linkage, however fleeting.” — Francie Hester, 2022