Sheila Metzner - Fine Art Photography Gallery

Notes on COLOR

The opulent fictional worlds of Henry Miller, DH Lawrence and F. Scott Fitzgerald; the fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson; thrift stores; her country garden full of rare flowers: these are just a few of the things that inspire Sheila Metzner. In her lifelong search for "great craft and intrinsic, essential beauty," Metzner has traveled the earth, collecting rare objects and photographing our natural and architectural wonders. In the simply-titled "Color" series, she brings beauty home, savoring such familiar forms as the female body and the calla lily. While "Color" hearkens back to the stylism of art deco, Metzner's gift lies in her ability to reinterpret the beauty she gathers around her with a gentleness and wonderment that are all her own.

Like passages culled from a novel, these vivid nudes and still lifes are glimpses into a shimmering, suspended reality, where Metzner, the author, invites our imaginations to swim: "The work of any artist is on the surface singular, selfish and one's own obsession," she says. "Beneath the surface is mystery and a wish for something finer and higher, a collaboration of hearts."