Artist Statement
Having spent most of her life in the Five Points community in Raleigh, North Carolina, Virginia is truly a local to the area. Art in some form has always been a part of her life, but painting is where her artistic passion lies. In her mid thirties after working in several design related jobs and when her daughter Kate began kindergarten, she returned to school to fulfill her goal of attaining her degree. At Meredith College, in 1993, she was selected by the faculty as Outstanding Student of Art. In the 1994 Raleigh Fine Arts Society Show, she received the Leonard White Award given by the show juror to the best entry by a student for “Looming Overhead”. She received her degree in Studio Art with a concentration in Painting from Meredith that same year. Around this time Virginia became active in Wake Visual Arts Association, (now Visual Art Exchange). Her work was included in numerous shows, and she received awards in several, including first place in the “Subtleties” show for her work, “Truce”. In 1997 she received a Regional Artist Project grant from United Arts for her work “Continuum”, a 36 panel painting representing a year of her life. She was included in the Visual Art Exchange show honoring grant recipients across the state. In 1999, Virginia was invited back to Meredith College for a solo exhibition in the rotunda gallery of Johnson Hall. She participated in several group shows in the following years and has been collected by more than thirty patrons. Virginia has also donated her work to several charities and fundraisers for both political and social causes. She has been a guest speaker at Visual Art Exchange and Meredith College, and has taught workshops to graduating art students at Meredith College on topics ranging from how to frame their work to how to market themselves as artists. In August of 2006, Virginia was invited to join Local Color Gallery. She is inspired by the talent of her fellow artists at the gallery, and is excited to return as an active participant in the artistic community of Raleigh, her hometown.
Virginia resides in Knightdale, NC.
