Theodora Ilowitz, who moved to Southern California in 2000, from New York, via Florida, is experiencing a rebirth. California has had a great influence on the artist, which comes through in her new “Canyon Series” through vibrant colors. Theodora uses a wonderful technique which she calls “painting with rice paper.” This technique involves texture, color, transparencies, as well as the nuances of color as they are layered upon each other. Then, like a bolt of lightening, she embellishes the paintings with metallic highlights. The end result is an eye-catching, stunning experience… not what one would expect from a woman who has been in the field for over forty years. This is also evident in her striking, and strong use of color which are seen in the most recent monoprints. When you think of an abstract artist, you most likely conjure up a vision of a young, impulsive struggling artist. Not so in this case. Theodora has reached a point where there is a culmination of all of her years of study and work, and suddenly the floodgates open, and she feels that she can “explode” and do whatever she wants to do. “When you reach a mature age you stop worrying, and you have the freedom to do what you love.”

Another area that Theodora has recently ventured out into is the use of clay to sculpt the images that she later unleashes in bronze. Her latest subject matter has been re-ignited by memories of her daughter, Rozanna, from when Rozanna was a ballerina. The first piece is a very stylized, classic pose. It is long and leggy, as every ballerina wishes to be. In the next piece of the series, you can see the influence of her paintings and prints, which have an elegant flow, in the contours of the garment in her modern dancer. In addition, the colors used in her previous work have had a bold influence in the patina of the dancer’s costume. Her interest in bronze was initially developed after sculpting over 25 stones from soapstone to marble. This has lead her to say that as a series of work comes to an end, then a new one begins.