Skinner works between her Santa Fe and Seattle studios, different cultures and landscapes. A multidisciplinary, conceptual artist, she creates with painting and encaustic wax, glass, sculpture, printmaking, bookmaking and photography. She received her Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Stanford University in 1968, studying art under Nathan Oliveira and Frank Lobdell. A professional artist since nineteen, she began as a scientific illustrator of marine life. The five Tibetan elements – earth, fire, water, air, and space – interact in her work as a source of identity and spirit. Natural materials are combined in juxtaposition to each other: beeswax, damar resin, oil paint and pigments, stones, old cloth, found objects, fabric and threads, wood, lead, steel and copper wire. Collected antique books and papers are overlaid with wax and paint. Skinner uses prints and monotypes of her photographs and drawings on Handmade Himalayan papers, mylar and silk tissue. Travels and research sustain her work, which offers viewers a doorway into the intrinsic energy and fundamental properties of the natural and industrial worlds. She recognizes the fine balance of positive and negative forces extending through all universal concepts, and the importance of an equilibrium that is paramount to humanity’s survival. Skinner’s paintings and sculpture are included in many international private and public collections: Museum of Northwest Art, Henry Art Gallery, Tacoma Art Museum, Brush Creek Ranch, Museum of Encaustic Art, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation, Seattle University, Seeds of Compassion Collection, and the Swedish Orthopedic Institute.
Website
http://www.ceskinner.com
