CAROLYN COLE
Carolyn Cole is an artist for whom painting is a necessity, an outlet for her emotions. Painting acts as a conduit for her energy and passion for life. Cole is obsessed with the act of painting. She took her first painting classes during college and it changed the course of her life completely. She realized that making art would be a difficult life financially, but she was driven. Even during many years of hardship, she continued to make art daily. Nothing stopped her from creating. Now her paintings are collected throughout the world and she has exhibited and been collected by museums and art galleries nationally. Her abstractions play to the senses and the heart. She deploys color, mass, composition, and line to command attention, mesmerize, and draw us into places of her own making. Once there, we are allowed to wander at will. Here, we are left to discover the incidents and clues she leaves behind to tantalize, provoke and intrigue. An honors graduate of Portland State University in 1977, her work has been exhibited all over the United States, including the Seattle Art Museum and Portland Art Museum, as well as in London and in Dubai. She spent ten years as an artist in New York City, where she exhibited extensively before settling back into the Northwest in 1991. She is represented by art galleries in Chicago, Seattle, Carmel, Portland, and Santa Fe. Her paintings are included in numerous private and public collections including former Vice President Al Gore, Gordon Seigel, president of Crate & Barrel, former Presidential Chief of Staff John Podesta, Disney Productions, Zale Corporation, IBM Corporation, Kaiser Permanente, RNM Properties, Salton, Inc., TRW Corporation, American Express, Campbell Soup Company, and the Heinz Corporation.