About the Artist

Bio

Ginnie Baer is a visual artist residing in Edmond, OK.  She received her MFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University and her BFA in Painting and Drawing from The Ohio State University.  She has exhibited nationally and internationally including a residency and exhibition in Kofu, Japan.  

She was a member of a community-driven art collective-The Couchfire Collective, based in Columbus, Ohio.  

Ginnie works to understand and appreciate her surroundings and notions of landscape through painting.  

She has taught at several universities throughout the US and is currently a Lecturer at Oklahoma State University.

Artist Statement

Statement

My paintings tell many stories.  

They tell a story of landscape… landscapes visited, in reality, in dreams, through memories.  Of negative ions and magical panoramas.  

They tell a story, through their titles, of the way humans will level trees and plants, build lots of houses in their place, then name the grouping of new houses ‘Lavender Woods’.  

They tell a story of love.  Of love and longing for places, magnificent, awe-inspiring landscapes and those just outside the door. 

They tell a story of color—colors that evoke childhood, playful colors, serene colors.  Colors that sit side by side or cancel each other out.  Colors you can find at home improvement stores, enabling your walls to be painted ‘sea mist’ blue or ‘cloudy sky’ grey.  

They tell a story of painting, the way brushstrokes are blended or not, sometimes just sitting on the surface.  Of decisions made by agonizing for days and weeks and others made in seconds, one after the other. Of abstraction and representation, how they can live in harmony, though sometimes they fight.  

They tell a story of loss.  Of losing your parents before adulthood and of having a beautiful childhood while they were still here.  

They tell a story of wanting to offer comfort.  After pain, grief, and illness– and wanting to help others feel at peace.

What is your “Dreamland” ?

My dreamland consists of places I’ve visited or lived.  My paintings combine sensory and emotional memories of places.  I mix varied landscapes together, a desert and a prairie, for example, to create a somewhat familiar but mostly imagined scene.  I offer the places in the paintings to viewers as a visual and mental respite.  Escaping for a bit seems  to be required self-care for the times we are living in.

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