My work has always been about people, their things, their struggles, celebrations, or defeats. Whether you are actually looking at a face, a shoe, a fish, or leaf, it is somehow related to the life we lead, the tensions between people, or the relationships we all share with one another, or the world around us. The human condition with all its difficulties and joys, has, and will continue to be the subject of my work. The people near and dear to me often find themselves within my work; like most artists you in one way or another tell your story and through mine you see the people and things that are closest to me.
I generally paint large scale portraits in oils, or I work in charcoal on canvas or linen. I have recently started to collage linen and canvas on backgrounds, then I will draw on top of these collages with pencil or charcoal. The frayed edges add texture and seem to somehow play into the idea of coming undone, or apart. Sometimes even the best of us seem to put on the appearance of having it all together when in reality we are really falling apart. Since my early days as an artist I have dabbled in the clay and more recently I find myself playing around with slab built heads and bodies which often include leaves and or shoes. The subject matter seems to stay consistent, even when the media changes. The images I create are the things that for some reason seem important, more valuable, or need to be brought to our attention. We all have our own truth.
Bio
Ginny Hovendonis a secondary art teacher at Copenhagen Central School as well as an adjunct instructor at Jefferson Community College. She also teaches figure drawing for the North Country Arts Council. Always interested in portraiture, Ginny is currently creating a series of large-scale charcoal drawings and oil paintings of artists. She has so many friends who are working artists so finding subject matter is relatively easy. Her media of choice lately has been charcoal, but she has always worked with oils and has a love for ceramic work as well. Another favorite subject of Ginny’s and one she often goes back to are her studies of fish and birds. Her husband is an avid fisherman and taxidermist and he provides her with great specimens to work from. In 2007 her painting “Walleye” was featured in the American Artist Magazine. She has won numerous awards for her work and exhibits her work throughout the North Country. http://<vhovendon@ccsknights.org>