I suppose to start this off, I ought to tell you a bit about myself.  I am an artist - I always have been.  It’s the only thing I have ever wanted to do.  I’m also an adventurer.  I love the wilderness.  I climb both rock and ice.  I guide canoe trips.  And I’m a competitor.  I’ve raced cars, skis and bicycles. 

Being an artist is not a profession that my parents supported and because of that, I have never had formal training.  This is, I believe, the primary factor that shapes my work.  My work is “out of the box”, so to speak, primarily because I was never taught what the “box” was.  I consider this a great advantage.

So, I guess the main question is - What is my work about?  It’s about transparency.  That is the element you will always find in my work...whether it is layers of transparent paint or a transparent substrate.  The light that moves through my work is what keeps it alive (and keeps me painting!). 

Why transparency?  As a child, I was fascinated with all colors, but the only color I couldn’t figure out was the color “clear”.  I spent hours trying to see what color it was by staring at the sky and trying not to see the blue.  I tried placing 2 mirrors so that they faced each other and then looked down that long corridor convinced that if I could see far enough, I would eventually see what Clear looked like.  I never figured it out, but I came to the conclusion that Clear is where light shows through.  In honor of my childhood quest, Clear is always part of my palette.

My current favorite transparent substrate is plexiglass.  This much maligned plastic is quite fun to work with.  My first efforts involved painting on flat pieces of plexi.  That ended pretty quickly because it did not seem alive.  Now I begin by taking a torch to the plexi to melt it, bubble it up and turn it into something that is more organic.  (If you ever want to try this at home, take note...Plexiglass, when heated up, emits toxic fumes!  Do it in a well-ventilated place...like outside.)  Then the fun starts.  The photo above is a detail of a piece from my Convergence series.  You can see the whole piece on my website -  www.pamfortner.com    Let me know what you think.  I would love to have feedback.