Alison Atkins connects works with poetry
Alison Atkins is a Shreveport artist who has been fortunate to enjoy a broad global exposure to the arts beginning with her family environment.
Atkins works in oil on canvas, pastel, pencil, mixed media collage and giclee prints. Her work is widely collected throughout the United States and Europe. Among her many international exhibitions are: The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.; Theater of the Performing Arts in New Orleans; The Florence Art Gallery, Florence, Italy; Ars et Decora Gallery in Philadelphia; Warren Miller Gallery in New York City and the Mairie du Septieme, Paris, France.
“My mother tells me I that I was naturally drawn to a love of color and painting from a very early age,” Atkins said.
She excelled at her art curriculum so well that she was doing college level art while still in high school.
After early encouragement from family friend O. Delton Harrison, Jr. Atkins attended Sophie Newcomb College at Tulane University. There Atkins went for a dual major in art and pre-med. Her pre-med studies led her to develop a strong interest in anatomy and figure painting. She followed her graduation with further studies at graduate school where she earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Tulane University in New Orleans and a master of fine arts degree from Dominican University in Florence, Italy.
Following her graduation from Tulane, Atkins won the coveted Arthur Q. Davis Award for excellence in drawing. She then spent 14 years in Europe (including time in Paris and the south of France) where her talent enabled her to get considerable work doing commissioned portraits. Her daughter Juliette was born in Paris in 1991 while she was married to a British entrepreneur. She became inspired to incorporate poetry into her work in 1995 particularly impacted by the poet William Blake.
“Blake’s work reflected the duality of darkness and light which I find intriguing,” Atkins said.
After moving back to her hometown, the lure of poetry became even more distinctive in her work.
“In 1997, after moving back to Shreveport, I found that I missed speaking French and so poetry took its place and filled a void,” Atkins said. “When I am painting and writing, I feel at peace and more connected to the universe. I feel much more balanced and centered,” Atkins said.
Much of the poetry Atkins has created to accompany her artwork was driven by the pain of her husband’s passing.
“A pain so real and so profound I tried to scream there was no sound,” one of them reads.
Another poignant verse reveals:
“Broken. Weak and devastated/Bound and punished, violated/Hide behind the widow’s peak, Cry for mercy, face of grief/Thunder, plunder, savage swine/
Search for refuge in my mind/Victim of sadistic lust/and it’s in the name of trust.”
And further, “A tour de force/Like a river/cold and murky/and much deeper/ Caught in the current of a changing tide/No escape/no place to hide.”
“Mostly Alison paints people alone or in groups capturing them unaware in all the nakedness of their humanity. Some are happy, some are sad, some frightened others threatening. A room full of her art reveals a broad spectrum of human emotions,” Shreveport art critic Anne Neville said.
Despite the pain Atkins has endured, her art has allowed her to transcend the lows and led her to exalt light and beauty even as she acknowledges the darkness that exists.
“I endeavor to encourage creativity in the face of adversity,” Atkins said.
Last fall Atkins presented a retrospective encompassing over two decades of art and poetry unveiled at the artspace exhibition. The exhibition was titled “The Eyes of Juliette: A Journey of Reflection.” The Juliette in the show’s title refers to the artist’s daughter born in Paris, France in 1991.
Though Atkins’ work has been favorably compared to many European and American post-Impressionists, her style of expressive paintings and poetry are a clear reflection of her life and experiences.
Discover her art and life further at alisonatkinsart.com.
– Karl Hasten