A R L E N E L I E B E R M A N

Artist’s Statement

I have always been drawn to the challenge of understanding what makes character and affect unique. Capturing these intangibles and rendering them into an honest and accurate representational image is my goal. In doing so, I am transported by a magical process I can best describe as meditative and restorative.

I began my career as an artist using many different media, but I have never strayed far from the simplicity, precision, and the many possibilities of the graphite pencil.  Though I have experimented with still life, I have always returned to the figure. I specialize in portrait commissions, figurative work, and portrait photography, a relatively recent professional endeavor. With pencil or camera in hand, I hold a mirror up to life. I strive to breathe life into my figures and develop them until they seem to inhale on their own. My goal is to reach a psychological authenticity and to convey connection in every artistic endeavor.

I was honored to receive first prize for my graphite portrait “Chignon” at the 2009 Works On Paper Exhibition at The Long Island Museum. The comments of the judge, Mel Pekarsky, reflect what I try to accomplish in my work. He stated that he looked at the winning pieces several times until “instead of marks on paper, the art becomes a being that I can communicate with. Of all the pieces in the show it’s [Chignon] the one that has the most presence for me”. With this drawing, along with my many others that have been exhibited in juried shows locally and nationally, published in books and journals, granted honors and awards, and held in private and public collections, I have attempted to turn the act of seeing into an intimate art of knowing.