Cecily Barth Firestein

My first one-person exhibition of oil paintings took place directly after my first son was born, in 1959. The next exhibition occurred after the birth of my second son. I changed my medium from oil painting on canvas to collage on paper to accommodate the demands of family life—a husband home for lunch every day and my desire to raise my children with minimum hiring of outside caregivers. Collage was a more practical medium for me as a mother of these two youngsters. I could leave and return to the work as time permitted, and there were no dangerous substances to spill or inhale.Since those early times I have had more than 43 solo exhibitions here in the States and abroad. Those first exhibitions were during the “Tenth Street Days”, when there were few women in “the boys’ club”. I was a member of one of the first coop galleries centered around that area. After the gallery openings the men went out drinking at the Cedar Bar. I was invited to come along. I went home to change diapers. Abstract Expressionism was de rigueur in the fifties. I have always tried to push beyond that pure gestural approach, trying to bring other elements into my work, forming more surreal atmospheres. I continue to work in this manner today, exclusively on paper. I bring images of animals, fish, and people that I have appropriated from numerous sources into my pictures. I have returned to the use of collage as a means of including them. I present these components discretely, not randomly, as harmonizing entities within my compositions. For many years I was devoted solely to printmaking. Currently I combine some printmaking techniques with my painting. I initiate each painting as if it were a monotype, painting an abstract design with oil-based ink on a large, rigid plastic sheet. Atop the ink picture I place a dampened sheet of Arches Cover paper. I transfer the image by means of pressure from a steam iron (back to the housewife). The paper is then clipped to a foam-core board resting on my easel. When the paper dries, I cover the under painting with a heavy wash of tempera paint. With wet rags and sponges I subtract some of the color to permit glimpses, through transparency, of the deeper-lying strata of the oil-based design. Finally, I overdraw; employ collage, paint, and controlled drips and spatters to enhance the drama and complexity of this painting. My aim is to convey my joy in this combined medium through the uninhibited use of lusty brushwork, dazzling colors, elegant compositions, and dynamic forms along with the “gravity of humor”. Humor plays an important role in my paintings, often disguising social comment although it may initially appear as just funny. It’s more than that. Sometimes I do add an irrelevant element which is really just for fun. Currently I work in my studio a minimum of 4 or 5 days per week for several hours each time. My husband is still home for lunch. My paintings are in numerous museum, public, and private collections.