ABOUT SONIA GECHTOFF
SONIA GETCHOFF was an American abstract expressionist painter. Her primary medium was painting but she also created drawings and prints. Wikipedia
Born: September 25, 1926, Philadelphia, PA
Died: February 1, 2018, The Bronx, New York, NY
Education: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Children: Susannah Leigh Kelly; Miles Tamarind Kelly
Sonia Gechtoff began her career immersed in the heady culture of the San Francisco Bay Area Beat Generation, producing abstract paintings and drawings with tantalizing hints of figuration. Inspired by poetry, Gechtoff approaches her work with a belief in the expressive power of color, individual brushstrokes, and thickly applied oil paint. Many of her works, like The Angel (1953-55), are abstracted self-portraits—through vibrant colors and thick, energetic brushstrokes, Gechtoff creates the suggestion of a central figure, whose abundant arms-cum-wings stretch across the picture plane. Later in her career, after moving to New York, Gechtoff began drawing inspiration from the Brooklyn Bridge, classical architecture, and the sea, whose forms are recognizable in her later series of flat, understated, collage-like paintings.
SOURCE: https://www.artsy.net/artist/sonia-gechtoff
QUOTE BY SONIA GECHTOFF
I've always thought of painting as some kind of gift. And as a gift, there is a duty that comes with it: to push painting as far as you can. Artists serve society simply by producing a good painting. And that's the hardest thing in the world. People think it's a lark. It's not.
WHAT I WISH FOR YOU TODAY
PUSH YOURSELF AS FAR AS YOU CAN; DELIVER YOUR GIFTS TO THE WORLD WITH EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT! TODAY, I WILL TRY AND WALK LIKE JOHN LEWIS.