I’m passionate about the deep meaning expressed in a single glance, how the effects of atmosphere color our emotions, and the attempt to illuminate these moments through art. All my life I have been fortunate to live with musicians. Music and what I listen to while I paint has a significant power over my artistic process, in what inspires me, in the emotions evoked and incorporated into a piece, and is often reflected in the popular song titles of the finished works.

I’m also influenced by my Irish heritage, and being raised in an Irish Catholic family of eleven children in an Irish enclave on the south side of Chicago. I drew with my number 2 pencils in a realistic style at an early age. As a young adult I was in great demand for portraits and architectural renderings. Inspired by the colorful landscape I admired during my first trip to Ireland, I added pastel to the graphite and pen & ink mediums in my repertoire. I’ve recently done more works in charcoal on Mylar drafting film, using a new medium to express my traditional artistic style, and my timeless subject matter.

Recent works are flirting with the magic realist/visonary aesthetic. I choose to depict contemporary places and people, but my goal is to use skill and imagination to produce works that portray the more enduring qualities of the world and of the human condition.

~ Alice McMahon White 2009