Infectious Alto

Size: 18" x 24" x 1.5"Medium: AcrylicSurface: CanvasStyle: AbstractArtist: Thaneeya McArdle

This painting is aesthetically inspired by my keen interest in the folk arts of Mexico and India, particularly in the intensity of their color palettes and their detailed patterns. This painting combines my love for tribal art with a contemporary urban aesthetic resulting in a fresh, vibrant abstract style that expresses the complexity and multiplicity of modern life through a youthful and jubilant perspective. Through the frenetic juxtaposition and overlap of colors and patterns, I create a sense of energy and exuberance on the surface that immediately transforms the atmosphere of any room into one of exotic festivity. This painting may be hung with any side facing up! The 1.5" thick edges of this painting are painted black, making this painting ready to hang directly onto the wall without a frame.

Intangible Evidence

Size: 8" x 8" x 1.5"Medium: AcrylicSurface: CanvasStyle: Abstract Artist: Thaneeya McArdle

This colorful abstract painting depicts eight vertical strips of various designs and colors, each interacting and harmonizing with the neighboring colors and the designs as a whole. This painting embodies the concept of unique individuals co-existing in affinity with others. The 1.5" thick edges of this painting are painted black, making this painting ready to hang directly onto the wall without a frame.

Here I am inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. This piece is entitled "Embankment" by the artist Rachel Whiteread, and consists of huge piles of 14,000 white boxes.

thaneeyaAge: 25Gender: Female Astrological Sign: Gemini Zodiac Year: Rat Industry: Arts Occupation: Artist Location: it changes - Florida / UK / France

Thaneeya McArdle• Thaneeya McArdle is an internationally-collected artist working in a

variety of styles, ranging from photorealism to abstraction, and a whimsical combination of the two. Her artwork is inspired by themes of spirituality, nature, travel, multiplicity and change, held together by a reverance for and appreciation of the everpresent unknown. She seeks to evoke a sense of joy and wonder through her artwork, with the belief that visual harmony creates a healing impact upon the viewer, which can then spiral outward to positively affect all areas of a person's life.

• Thaneeya utilizes a number of mediums in her work, such as acrylics, watercolor, and colored pencils, forming her vision on a variety of surfaces, from the traditional paper, wood and canvas to more unconventional surfaces like the frame of her car! On this website you can view an extensive portfolio of her work to date, as well as purchase originals, prints, t-shirts, handmade necklaces, and other gift items featuring her addictive artwork.

• I was born in the summer of '79, and six weeks later experienced my first intercontinental plane ride. I've been hooked on travel ever since. I learned to walk in Saudi Arabia, stayed with a tribal village family in India, visited a civil war refugee camp in Sri Lanka, had my palm read in Nepal, trekked through gorgeous green fields in England, and got lost in the Louvre. What I love about travelling is that it forces you to find a sense of rootedness within yourself - the perfect lesson in non-attachment. In many ways, the physical voyage runs parallel to the inner journey, each realm of adventure enhancing the other. Placing yourself out of context often helps you see yourself more clearly, and I try to maintain that perceptiveness in my daily life.

Early Years

• I grew up mostly in Florida, a fairly normal child, although probably considered quite shy and inward-looking, preferring daydreams and doodles over daring and drama. I knew from an early age that I was an artist, and quite clearly recall being thoroughly unsatisfied at the age of 6 with the quality of the supermarket art materials I was given to work with. (Tempera paints that were runny and blended into dull, muddy tones; slick posterboard which would not properly soak the pigment; and clunky brushes whose hairs would fray too easily and offered no practical control over detail.) I liked drawing horses, but always forgot the mane.

• After a colorful academic elementary career including a First Grade Spelling Bee Champion trophy, I went through middle and high school in the normal way, sprinkled with bouts of artmaking here and there amidst a mainly scholastic curriculum. This began to change when at the age of 15, I undertook lessons at the Atelier of Plein-Air Studies in Safety Harbor, FL, where I learned the classical techniques of rendering still lifes in charcoal and oil paints (such as the Satyr painting in the scrollbar below).

And then

• I graduated high school in 1997 with numerous awards to my name, both academic and art-related, such as being named a National Merit Scholar and an Outstanding Painting Student. I've always loved to exercise the contents of my cranium, so I started college unsure of whether to pursue my creative side through Creative Writing or Art, or to pursue my intellectual and spiritual yearnings through Philosophy or Religion. After taking a number of classes in each subject at the wonderful Warren Wilson College, I realized that the pursuit of a livelihood in art would be the only career path that would allow me to simultaneously explore all four of those interests at once! I realized that art would allow for a creative outlet to all the intellectual and spiritual searches that I would conduct throughout my life.

• My time at Warren Wilson was important in many ways. It was (and still is, I imagine) a rather tiny college nestled in the mountains outside of Asheville, NC, which focused on service and work in addition to learning. The small, community-minded atmosphere provided a supportive environment for personal growth and plentiful opportunities for meaningful connections with other like-minded individuals. My experiences there were invaluable in shaping and nurturing my burgeoning sense of wanting to live a positive life imbued with appreciation and compassion for all living beings - solidifying my aim to work for the overall constructive good of the world, using whatever skills I can contribute.

• As much as I loved the fun, open-minded environment of Warren Wilson and its beautiful natural surroundings, its Art Department was still in its infancy at that time, so I left for a school with a more established program. I spent four years at the University of South Florida on a full scholarship. Most of the artwork I created there falls under my Composite Realism category and reflects a time in my life when my artistic output correlated with my search for a sense of identity through my cross-cultural connections.

• I graduated magna cum laude in the spring of 2004, after taking the meandering 7-year route through college. I have since been happily meandering in other contemplative ways - travelling the world and creating more artworks, now employing a variety of styles and themes to express the many nuances of existence that my boundless curiosity compels me to explore. I'm inspired by nooks and crannies, unseen paths, ever-present mysteries and endless beginnings. With subject matter ranging from politics to the subconscious, and through themes personal and universal, I create works that draw directly from tangible images of the world around me (photorealism) to works that spring from an inner spiritual search (abstracts). Always a lifelong student, now the world is my classroom and I seek inspiration from all I find around me.

And now

• During the past three years I was intimately involved in the creation of an ecological Buddhist co-housing community in southern France, which provided me the opportunity to meet lots of interesting people from all over the world and spend ample time enjoying nature. These experiences had a profound influence on my art and consciousness. With each new piece of art that I create, my skills are continually challenged and expanded and my concepts become richer and more fully defined. Like life, my creative endeavors are an endless learning process that is often surprising and always enriching.

• Since 2002, I have sold hundreds of artworks to collectors all over the globe. My images can be found on t-shirts, greeting cards, mugs, jewelry, and countless other items. It brings me great joy and fulfillment to know that my artwork is being enjoyed and appreciated all over the world! My goal as a person is to live a genuine life, imbued with meaning, with openness and awareness for all that is around and inside of me. My aim as an artist is to give a visual voice to this quest, to honor the path that we are all on by shedding light and adding color along the way.

Title: Tremulous encounters between two worldsSize: 8" x 10"Medium: Archival, lightfast Ink & Prismacolor Colored Pencils on 300 lb Hot-Pressed Watercolor paper by Fabriano UnoArtist: Thaneeya McArdle

Title: Tremulous encounters between two worlds

The theme of this highly charged drawing is the mythic concept of life, growth, and evolution. A cloud of elaborate eyes shoots down from the bustling cosmos and wisps delicately into a fine tornado-like point that makes contact with the dark, churning ocean of bobbing eyes. This drawing is incredibly detailed; you can see close-ups below. This piece is a fusion of my intensely-detailed black ink drawings and my equally-detailed colorful abstract work. The two come together in a rich marriage of style and energy. My abstract artwork is very process-oriented and carries a spiritual meaning related to the mystery of existence and a reverence for the unfolding process of life. The designs in this drawing arose spontaneously in a stream-of-consciousness manner. While working on drawings that are this detailed, I become so immersed in the work that drawing the images becomes a meditative process through which I strive to achieve balance amidst chaos (similar to the concept of mushin). The colors and designs arise spontaneously and reflect my interest in tribal and aboriginal art, specifically in the act of storytelling through nonrepresentational means. My abstract art is also heavily inspired by my world travels, particularly my visits to remote tribal villages in the Kutch region of India, as well as my visits to temples and roadside shrines in Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal.

• My abstract art paintings explore the self as an ever-evolving entity engaged in the mythic quest of uniting the spiritual with the material. Through the use of color, form, and personal symbology, I create pieces that express the mystery and delight of questioning the nature of existence.

• Abstract art is an ideal way to express matters of the spirit - universal concepts and existential questions that reach across the boundaries of language and cultural iconography. Through these paintings I manifest the intangible elements of everyday existence - emotions, thoughts, energy - by translating them into colors and patterns. My abstract works are often highly detailed because of my desire to achieve balance through multiplicity, in order to reflect the complexity of human consciousness (as a microcosm of the unfolding universe). The result is a whimsical concoction of color and form sustained by a lyrical harmony.