Miriam Bishay

I started painting very early in life through the encouragement of my mother who also loved to paint. My home was filled with her paintings and there was a steady supply of brushes, pencils, and paints. I was also fortunate to have key teachers early on who recognized and encouraged my abilities. They entered my work in competitions, which led to my paintings being displayed at places like the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Pacific Design Center. I won a few monetary prizes and even a small scholarship for college.

I never took art classes in college but continued to draw and paint on the side. A few years ago, I found Otis College and Franklyn Liegel who would become my painting mentor. Through him, I learned that painting is about process and about responding to images, layers, textures, and colors. I stopped looking for a great idea and just started painting. Strangely, that took me to a place where I had no shortage of ideas.

I found that I have a deep fascination with images of people. I like to paint moody, melancholy, reflective, vulnerable images of people, mostly women and girls. I paint with some element of realism or impressionism, but I also like to combine abstraction. My images are all a bit mysterious. They’ve been called “sad”, but to me they’re not sad. I see them all as hopeful.People often tell me that they all look like me in some ways. Maybe they are me or at least aspects of me.I’m not really sure. To me, they’re simply images that I connect with.