Denise Monaghan

DENISE MONAGHAN

https://www.facebook.com/denise.monaghan.127
www.denisemonaghan.com
instagram @denisemonaghan.art

Artist Bio
I have been a visual artist for as long as I can remember. I graduated from Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1980, but before that, I was always drawing. It is part of who I am and how I learn and process.

I have been in various group shows in different places where I have lived. I have taught art to both elementary and secondary students at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, all the while, doing freelance art and commission work. I am a member of the Pasadena Art Alliance, and now Astoria Visual Arts. I recently moved to Astoria from Los Angeles, where I hope to find more nature and inspiration for my painting.

Artist Statement
I have a series of gold leaf paintings that explore extinction, some of the animals represented have already left and some are close to leaving. I liked using gold for its historical connotations. It has been used in religious iconography, representing the untarnished and eternal nature of god. It has represented the sun and light in some cultures. And it has made some people crazy in the search for wealth and and immortality. Gold is a metal so fine and deadly this it blinds people to what is really precious. Gold has caused much suffering in its extraction and processing. Using it as a background for persecuted wildlife and indigenous cultures hopefully conveys the irony I feel in combing disparate visual traditions.