Artist Statement
I am a narrative artist who is inspired by myths, dreams and storytelling. I especially like tales where animals have power and distinct personalities and have as much, or even more presence in this world as humans do. Although my paintings tend not to have a linear narrative, I find that each painting I make, occupies a very specific geographic place, and also adds to the collective narrative, of an alternate world that keeps expanding and gaining definition the more that I paint.
Because I don't begin with a sketch or storyline, it often feels that I am just a conduit that stories pass through so that I can bring them to life. But over time, looking at the scope of what I've created, it is obvious that while these stories come from outside of me, they are also shaped as they pass through me and end up expressing all that they see in me too. I don't know what this means to me or what it is supposed to mean to anyone but I like that other people respond to my paintings with stories of their own. I also like the feeling that I have access to an alternate reality just under the surface of this world. One where animals get to live out their own stories without so much human interference. One with fleeing and reprieve, temporary safe havens, lands that contain vast homes for various creatures, portals and passages and roads all leading to the next place.
Bio
Abigail Lee Goldberger is a narrative artist, born in Boston, Massachusetts. She currently lives in San Francisco, California and works out of Art Explosion Studios on Alabama street in the Mission District. She has been featured in solo shows and has taken part in numerous group exhibitions across the US. She is a member of City Art Gallery in the Mission District of San Francisco and does select monthly showings there. Her first book, ‘The Doorway Inside the Cat’, was published in March of 2020 and features all five of the stories in her illustrated story series. She is the creator of the evolving interactive web-based art project, The Oracle of Dreams, oracleofdreams.org. And she is the founder of Sheepscot Arts Preserve, an artist residency center in Midcoast Maine that supports narrative, visionary and outsider artists of all disciplines.