Patricia Wheeler is a mixed media painter, living in Deer Isle, Maine. She explores concepts of human interaction with place, inspired by ritual and symbolism. Working with acrylic paint and limestone clay, her paintings unfold in layers; a palimpsest of personal history, memory, and archetypal energies.

Abstract narratives emerge through working the surfaces; building up, scratching and scraping off layers of color. Using a form of imbrication—image and text arranged so that they overlap— interrelated symbols encode and transmit meaning. Arundhati Roy wrote that artists are meant to worry the edges of the human imagination, to conjure beauty from the most unexpected things.

Pat’s artwork is a spiritual search, reflecting on our current time of personal and social upheaval.

Patricia Wheeler at the Penland School of Craft, N.C. doing demo for students.