Fisher College of Business

Light Crossing #4
higher resolution 99Kb

Oil on Paper, 30" x 22"
Mezzanine

Light Crossing #26
higher resolution 96Kb

Oil on Paper, 30" x 22"
Mezzanine

Betsy De Fusco’s colorful abstractions have been
the focus of recent exhibitions at the Dayton Visual Arts
Center, Columbus Cultural Arts Center, and Art Access Gallery, Columbus. In the past two years her painting has been included in juried exhibitions in Chattanooga, Philadelphia, New York City, and Los Angeles. Among the many public collections that include her work are Schoonover Boyer Gettman and Associates, Columbus, State Teachers Retirement System, Columbus, Huntington National Bank, Cleveland, and Glen Weber and Associates, Washington, D.C. De Fusco’s painting is also in numerous private collections as well.
De Fusco graduated with a degree in Art Education from the University of Dayton and received a M.F.A. from The Ohio State University.

When sorting out the immense range of visual stimuli that passes before us, color and light emerge as the most compelling aspects of what we see. I am interested in the ability of color and light to evoke a positive emotional response within the viewer. Various colors in a painting, blended and configured in a similar way to musical harmonies within a song, can pacify the mind and lift the spirit, bringing about a change physically as well as mentally.
When I paint, I apply thin layers of paint horizontally and vertically over a period of time. The colors are interwoven and overlapped like weaving in a fabric until completeness is felt within the structure of the painting. This completeness embraces balance, harmony, connectedness, complexity of surface, depth and order. I like the idea that the woven bands of colored air breathe color out into the atmosphere.
I never begin a painting with a preconceived notion of how it will look. To me, that would eliminate the adventure of not knowing what comes next. The paintings are begun rather haphazardly, and the process of building up the layers is a day by day event, with something different happening each time. The completed painting becomes for me a little lesson in color and the mysterious properties of paint.