Antoinette M. Slick: A Life Filled with Art

A Retrospective Exhibit

March 21 - April 24, 2024

In this retrospective exhibition, non-objective painter Antoinette M. Slick shares over 40 years of artmaking.

Artist Biography & Statement

I remember being three years old sitting with my mother on the window seat in our kitchen. She was coloring a picture in a coloring book. I so wanted to do that. That began my pursuit of a life devoted to creating art.

My parents always supplied me with materials to pursue my passion to create art. They thought it was a wonderful hobby. When it came time to go to college (I was the first one in my family to do so) my choices were a nurse or a teacher (security, you know, in case I didn’t marry). I pursued a degree in education and art disappeared from my life for many years. I had four kids and was a stay-at-home mom. Eventually, the last child was in school and I had to get a job or seriously delve into my passion for creating art. I chose the latter.

The more I painted, the more sure I was that I made the right choice. I started with oils, quickly moved to transparent watercolors, and ended up with acrylics and various drawing materials. I made many discoveries along the way, not the least of which were the answers to the many “whys”- why paint, why paint that, why do I care what people think?

In the beginning I painted the everyday things around me, flowers, barns, vegetables, houses. Always trying to introduce a new idea, an emotional response, or a question. Maybe the fish isn’t real, why paint that barn, what kind of flower is that, my reaction was to get ever more abstract. My fascination with surfaces began several years ago while traveling. While my companions were photographing wonderful scenery or historic buildings, my camera was recording walls, floors, ceilings, and doors.

These surfaces are affected by everyday happenings, transforming them into objects with emotional content. The paintings became more dramatic as symbols began to appear. People ask, “What is that?” I don’t know. What IS that? The paintings became more abstract. Often there are many layers simultaneously covering and uncovering, eroding, and exposing. The process became compulsive. Add this, get rid of that. WHY I don’t know. It feels right.

I feel my paintings evoke discovery, emotional involvement, and intellectual stimulation. My paintings hint at written messages, but on closer inspection the letters aren’t real letters, the words aren’t real words. Like the surfaces from which they are inspired, the viewer is invited to sense, experience, and interpret. Today a selection of my work is present from beginning to end. It is for you to decide if it was a worthwhile journey.

antoinetteslick.com