I’ve had ability in graphic design since a young age. It seemed natural and I am grateful for it. Design and sketching became daily routines, but truthfully, design simply wasn’t enough to make me FEEL alive. Early desires as a fine art painter unearthed profound feelings not to be ignored. Impressionism and abstract expressionism were forefront. By fifteen, my mind’s eye revealed what I needed to do to breathe, but couldn’t explain. I can say with certainty, as art instructors worry about competition and push students to “find their own style,” I only knew I had to search deep within to FEEL my art as an extension of my being. I had to truly understand and experience the simplicity of joy that comes with such a complex and illuminating gift.

In order to transcend from designer to painter, I realized in the 60-70’s that I had to embrace nature & motion. I had to FUSE the alluvial corporate sting of newer capitalistic practices connected to the graceful symmetry that graphic design, as an art form, encompasses. I needed to combine bold shapes and space with flow and DIMENSION. After years of mostly pleasurable frustration, I found my own methodical, possibly magical, painting form. This exists for me using a system of varying techniques.

I’ve had many exhibits, awards, special requests and newspaper write-ups, without an Art Degree.

I did study all the art classes available between two high school s in the late 1960’s. Over a period of five years, I received almost three more years in art studies at various city colleges throughout the country. Along with academics, I studied Watercolor, Design, Still Life, Ceramics, Portraiture and Life Drawing. Between these college classes, around 1972, I was accepted by jury to Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles three semesters in a row. Sadly, with the Viet Nam War and protests still raging, there were no loans available for art students. Initially, this disappointment was scathing. In the years since, however, I realize I would not likely have transcended my work; rather I would have been miserable in an ad firm. Lastly, I apprenticed privately under two known artists; Norm Ingersoll Design Studios and Glenn Vilppu of Art Center at the time.

Today, and for a number of years, I paint without worry; but with joy and wholeness. Having carved my own stylish approach to the canvas, I handle brushes, palette knives and mediums with steady calm and purpose. I fused the bold, flat graphic shapes with the dimensional flow of nature. My paintings will reveal secrets or several different stories to a viewer. However, I am not finished unearthing creativity.

If you can feel art through the spiritual flow of senses alive in the work of an artist, then we’re able to meld our unique world with you. You decide. Have fun. I hope you enjoy the website [thank you daughter]. Life is good.

- Artist Cindy Hadden