“The only difference between you and them is that they did it, so just go out and do it.

”
Michael Recht, 1997
2
Introduction by
Shawn Hill

Rose Umerlik
 Introduction 7

Selected Paintings 10 - 41

Artist’s Statement 13

Histories 42 - 67

Artist’s Note 45

Biography 68
6
 Introduction ROSE UMERLIK ’s paintings explore personal biography, problematic relationships, and
emotional states along a spectrum from anger and frustration to calm acceptance and
hope. Umerlik works in an abstract expressionist idiom, in that she feels that these
experiences translate into abstract forms. Like that pioneer generation of American
painters, Umerlik believes in universal forms that translate across barriers of language,
culture and gender. The other side of that coin, however, is a release of concerns about
specificity. She doesn’t believe her audience needs to know the names and places, or
even the particular circumstances that inspire each image. There’s faith and a trust in
the process of art-making, that her skills with paint on panels will capture enough of her
expression in a manner to deliver the feelings, if not the facts, to her viewers.

Thus one is invited to read into her images, and she aids in this process greatly with
her evocative titles. Those few words can serve as windows into the work, anchors (if
any are needed) from which to begin the process of decoding. They may not be needed,
in fact, because most of the images are fairly anchored already. Many feature circular
by
forms, womb-like shapes that recall seeds and flowers, spirals of life that spin out from
Shawn Hill
calm centers into other shapes and colors. There is an organic feeling to Umerlik’s work,
a sense of natural processes of growth, expansion and decay. Cyclical processes allow
for those many moods she captures to be given their full expression. Her forms, unlike
the first generation of abstract expressionists, are not characterized by violent flurries
of marks. There are angular forms and hard edges, but they always seem to slice into or
flow out of those circular nodes.

Umerlik pays particular attention to surface texture. Her colors tend to the
monochromatic; only occasionally do vibrant blues, reds or yellows emerge. More
often, as in her diptych Of Many (pp. 38, 39), expanses of white, beige and gray are
punctuated by tendrils of green, and tertiary slices of red-orange or accent sheens of
gold. There is an inevitability and an easy elegance to this work; an arc slices across
the border between the two panels, an orange and brown form that unfolds against the
shadowy gray green ground above it. The complex coils of color on the left seem to unfold
and shift towards the greater space on the right, like plants growing towards the light.

In describing her own work she refers to the sculptors Brancusi and Louise
Bourgeois. She likely resonates with the clean lines of one and the raw emotional
confessions of the other, but yet another sculptor comes to mind when looking at her
work. Her panels have either vertical or horizontal orientations, and the latter quite
naturally lead to associations with landscape. David Smith also created horizontal
tableaux, in his case using welded metal.

That mid-20th century master brought the tenets of abstract expressionism to the
world of arc welding, striving to achieve in three dimensions and on sheets of steel
what Pollock and DeKooning had done on canvas. His earliest works (like those of
Louise Nevelson, another American sculptor) belied his training in painting. It was a
developmental process to break away from two-dimensional compositions, and Umerlik’s

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Roaming (p. 23) (which has linear arcs that rebound back from the edges of the
frame) recalls his seminal Hudson River Landscape. Both artworks seem to evoke the
shifting scenery of a riverbank, from the perspective perhaps of a window on a boat
sailing downstream. What Smith did by attaching pieces of cut metal, Umerlik does
by loops of line and color.

One reason for the generally limited palette of these works is that Umerlik’s process
is based on drawing; graphite and other pencils determine her forms on the panels,
and often these sketched lines remain in the finished work. Umerlik found that canvas

Fig 1. Momentum Shifts, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 24” x 38”

was far too yielding, and the weave too distracting, for the shimmering flat expanses
of paint she prefers. There’s still variation in the narrow area she allows herself, as her
oils move from fragile washes and scraped passages to solid sheens of opacity.

Momentum Shifts (fig. 1) has the spritely energy conjured by the title, as well
as its contradictory tension expressed as massive globular forms. The central white
mound is echoed in smaller shapes that seem to swing around it; an arc like a
pendulum’s seems to be unfolding before our eyes. The greens and browns caught in
the vortex seem to enhance the feeling of landscape; the whole is like a slow-motion
landslide, an evocation of the effects of weather and time as shifting and motive as
Cezanne’s study of Mont Sainte-Victoire.

Umerlik’s sense of color space is subtle and elegant. Like the cubists she works in
layers of flattened panes; but Umerlik doesn’t rely on the grid to stabilize or contrast

8
her organic curves. Rather, she takes those circles and arcs and uses them to form
hints of either horizons or personages. Thus each of her works can be both figure and
ground. The layers and washes of paint are flexible enough, congruent enough, to allow
certain images to flicker back and forth from one to the other. It’s not just a case of
whether the orientation is horizontal or vertical, but more about whether the carefully
delineated shapes create a solid center or seem to describe a vast echoing expanse.

Fig 2. Allowing Room, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 28” x 22”

Heave and Fall (p. 25), and Prospect in White (p. 21) are two of the more
figurative works. The former seems to indicate arms wrapped around one’s own body,
for self-protection and comfort. The latter has a lot of activity on the left, compared to
a void of white on the right. The blues, greens and grays on the left speak to sadness,
privacy, introspection. Is the white a clearing of the decks, a way opening to a new
period of hope? Time seems to elapse from one side to the other.

In Allowing Room (fig. 2) the area of white burgeons and grows like an expanding
balloon, pushing more solid areas of black and brown to the edges of the frame. In
Opposed (p. 35) it’s an area of grayish black that heaves and presses against tendrils of
gray and gold. Some of these filaments seem to slice right across the black silhouette,
but it remains strong, resilient. An organic process of birth and growth, Umerlik
seems to imply, however natural, is also a determined and serious ongoing struggle.

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Paintings
12
Artist’s Statement MY ART PRACTICE is inextricably tied to my personal history. Stories of family,
relationships, and self-awareness generate forces of emotion—fear, hope, loss, pain, and
love—that drive me through the creation of each painting.

From the beginning of each piece, I lay down shapes, lines and bodies of color. As I
manipulate these elements, I intuitively recognize how the correlation of these elements
mirrors my interpersonal relationships. At different times these lines and forms vary in
the way they relate to one another. Sometimes they hold each other, or gesture lovingly;
other times they oppose each other or interact aggressively; sometimes their relationship
is uncomfortable or uncertain; other times they strive for isolation.

As I move through moments of personal recognition, these moments influence

the formulation of the composition. I engage in an extended series of decisions and
revisions; tensions undulate on the painted surface, layers of lines, pigments, and
shapes are laid down, cleared, and then selectively restored. When a painting is realized
conclusively, the surface is necessarily multifarious, the reworked layers reflect my
ongoing struggle to accept my history, my present, and to be hopeful of the future.

This complexity of formal elements and process is present throughout my work. My

aim is not only to mirror the intricacies of my personal story, but also to connect with the
viewer, to echo the personal, emotional struggles that resonate with each of us, and that
are present in the collective human mind and heart.

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14
Following Time, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 60” x 30”

15
16
Overcast, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 22” x 28”

17
Cessation, 2011, oil and graphite on panel (diptych), 28” x 96”

18
19
20
Prospect in White, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 58” x 30”

21
22
Roaming, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 30” x 66”

23
24
Heave And Fall, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 48” x 28”

25
Two, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 50” x 26”

26
Twofold, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 22” x 16”

27
28
Overtaken, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 30” x 66”

29
30
Positioning, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 60” x 30”

31
32
Two At Length, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 26” x 50”

33
34
Opposed, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 44” x 28”

35
36
Hastening, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 24” x 38”

37
Of Many, 2011, oil and graphite on panel (diptych), 30” x 108”

38
39
40
Passages, 2011, oil and graphite on panel, 24” x 60”

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44
Artist’s Note IN SEPTEMBER 2010 , I spent a month in a residency program at the Vermont Studio
Center. While living there, away from the distractions of ordinary life, I found myself
with more free time than I am accustomed to. My living quarters and my studio were
only a few hundred feet apart and so the need to get “home” after working in my studio
all day vanished—home and studio were essentially one in the same. For the first time,
I found myself lingering in my studio with newly finished paintings, and I began to
write about them. Initially, my goal was simple: I wanted to keep a record of the pieces
I completed in Vermont—what they looked like, their size, their orientation, etc. Fairly
quickly, however, this record keeping evolved into writing that was more exploratory. For
the open studio event at the end of the residency I wrote out these texts on paper and
tacked them up next to each piece. This approach of pairing my work with the texts
was well received. More people paused and spent time with the pieces. As the evening
progressed, more and more people came up to me and said that they were making
connections and seeing things in the work that they may not have without the text. This
experience encouraged me to continue writing about my paintings after I returned home.

In the months that followed, keeping a painting journal became a natural part of
my studio practice. Through the writing process, which encouraged self-reflection and
honesty, I noticed that I was beginning to unearth the less conscious motivations and
sources of inspiration for my work; ideas and feelings that I had not been as keenly in
touch with before. I began to see that each painting has a story, a history.

These histories trace the forms, lines, colors, and drawings of each painting back to
their source, creating a framework of its genesis. Fear, anger, helplessness, frustration,
pain, love, family, hope, light, sincerity—these are just some of the “protagonists”
shaping the storylines that thread in and out of my paintings. My decision to share these
stories here came out of a belief that honesty is the deepest essence of any art form.
I strive to paint with integrity, and I hope this is apparent in my paintings and their
accompanying texts. By introducing these histories, my goal is to give the viewer new
ways of understanding my work.

These histories date from December 2010 through August 2011. I have included
every painting and excerpts from every text that I completed during this stretch of time.
Preserving the candid, personal nature of the journal entries was paramount as I went
through the editing process. It is, in part, the vulnerability that these texts possess, which
I hope will deepen the viewer’s insight into the work, inviting them to link these histories
with their own.

45
46
 12.28.10
Brokenness
22” x 16”
“Split in two, the halves are pulling apart. The force of this
painting is trying to grow from something broken, the base is
broken, the roots are broken and it’s laid out that I’m no longer
whole. I can see it. Every angle of every day is weighted with
reminders of how broken things are. The fractures of my very
heart and brain come through but so does the fight to perse-
vere, to continue. Not knowing how to heal, I don’t think about
it, but I know how to be angry and fight for what I want. I’ll
take the brokenness and push it and mold it into my paintings,
and ache for those small moments of clarity and clean lines.”

1.2.11
Reaching Around
22” x 16”
“Trying to locate comfort. The action of reaching around and
offering some relief, some solace, wanting to make contact,
but I can’t, there is all of the wanting but it doesn’t happen.
A failure to comfort leaves coldness behind.
I want to heal, but don’t know how.”

47
 1.8.11
Consider
36” x 22”
“Early on in this painting, I looked at the lines and the
drawing, with just a little paint laid down, and stopped
because of the power of loneliness and sadness and
soothing and searching unfolding on the surface. Through
this painting, I am searching for the parts that I know
are missing in me. But I never find them because I never
had them to begin with; I was always deficient. It’s the
first time I see the emptiness and it’s startling, so I rush
to fill it with color and line. I work the surface and I work
the drawing and I’m learning in the painting that it is
the friction created from wanting and struggling that will
somehow yield a filling of that hollowness.”

1.15.11
Poised
48” x 28“
“I’ve been thinking a lot about Louise Bour-
geois’ Personages, thinking about people all the time,
thinking about humanity with each new painting. This
one is trying to open up, to push up, and the black is
heavy and hard, and the white is the effort and the gray is
reality. It’s hard to grow and break from the past but we
try and keep trying. I move forward and then I’m
held back; it’s a struggle that will eventually cease and
yield balance. The starkness of the black and white is
important to me, serious and strong. I’m fighting
for my life in every painting.”

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 1.24.11
Sighting
20” x 30“
“Yesterday I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn’t
connected to the piece and I hit a point in the painting where
I looked at it and thought to myself, what the hell is this, this
isn’t me, and I realized that I wasn’t present, wasn’t participat-
ing in the painting so I scraped it down, leaving the small parts
that had sparked something in me. Today, I was connected at
once and that black horizon line came out and pronounced
itself and everything grew from there. In this piece, I’m in the
center and the gray form and the yellow ochre form are outside
of me, and I don’t know them exactly but I try and reach into
them with feelings of optimism. This optimism comes on the
heels of isolation. It’s possible to feel optimistic because my
isolation from the world leaves me temporarily unfamiliar with
reality and its difficulties. So in some way, this painting is a
rare remembrance of what it is to possess that innocence
that lends itself to optimism.”

1.29.11
Lightly
44” x 28“
“The feeling of being crowded, of things
closing in, is present in this piece. The delicate yellow forms
have a beauty to them, like secretly saving something for only
you, whereas the black/gray areas are heavy and somewhat
intimidating. I was thinking about being stifled by those domi-
neering black forms, but really the painting is about the deli-
cate white and yellow forms and how they represent the places
inside of me that are rarely exposed and really only come out in
a painting. In the rest of my life I am guarded and strong, but
I don’t want to be. These parts that only I see, the parts that
are free when I’m alone in my studio, finding their way into my
paintings, this is how I want to be. It’s hard to find a translation
for it into life outside of my studio; perhaps that’s why there’s a
feeling of sadness that carried me through the painting.”

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 2.5.11
Compelled Separates
49” x 24”
“The vertical elements are wanting to lean into one
another, they’re craving dependence and yet they hold
themselves independently, like a family of separates.
They can’t be together yet they can’t walk away. I am
holding onto the idea that these people, these forms, can
coexist. It’s not a fantasy, it’s my wondering on how to
hold onto those people who’ve hurt me, how to want to
hold onto them. Is this even possible? This painting is a
projection of a place that exists beyond the pain, where
there can be closeness and independence.”

2.13.11
Two at Length
26” x 50”
“Wanting to do a painting that showed the relationship
of two—one bigger and one smaller—I started with a
close-up of the two people and the painting was failing.
I stopped and sat in my chair and all I could think of
was white space, a need to bring in space. These two
people are not close, they are lost to each other, they are
worlds apart. There are some strong underlying visual
elements to suggest the depth of their relationship, but
on the surface they are barely connected by faded lines.
The white space made it feel right to me, showing how
removed we can be from the people we should feel close
to. It wouldn’t be an accurate meditation on my relation-
ship with that person without the distance, and without
the loneliness. There are no close-ups of these people
in my life; the only way to see us in the same plane is by
panning out, adding distance. The intensity of the smaller
isolated form, orange and complicated, paralyzes me.
When I see that intensity surrounded by white,
it seems blindingly beautiful.”

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 2.15.11
Countering
18” x 34”
“The busyness of the small forms along the bottom feels so
joyful and the strong form stretching up the right side feels so
serious. Like two different facets of a personality, playfulness
and seriousness. My work used to be all about joy and happi-
ness, much like Brancusi, but now it embraces all the other
states of being, they all compete to dominate my work.”

2.19.11
Taking Off
22” x 28”
“This piece is about feeling caught, held down by rational think-
ing and just wanting that impulsive rush of escape. Yes, the
mind can imagine escaping, but your body is held back, held
down because you’ve grown older, and perhaps, more rational.
The things that make us feel free change as we age, they morph
into different things, but that very specific youthful feeling of
freedom starts to only resonate in memories. Is that why we
have children, to reconnect with the freedom of youth, to re-live
our first road trip or the first time we moved to a new city with
just a small sum and no plan except to experience it all?”

51
 2.22.11
Turning Around
36” x 24”
“I wanted to create open space and I just couldn’t so
finally I gave in and let it be complex. It felt frustrating,
but as I stop and I look at it now, I know that is how it is
supposed to be, I know it is right. This painting was chal-
lenging because of the importance I gave to the drawing.
There must be a balance between drawing, color, line,
and form. Drawing should be only one of four, not so
heavily weighted. As I reflect on the long process of its
creation, I can see that this painting is about the deepen-
ing of confusion and turning thoughts over on themselves.
The one moment of clarity is the clean form on the side.”

2.28.11
Two
50” x 26”
“This was an incredibly difficult piece, the colors started
out too pretty and couldn’t recover. Also, like in the
previous painting, the drawing was overriding the other
elements. Frustrated, I left my studio and turned to books
for guidance. First, Ellsworth Kelly’s plant lithographs to
regain my sense of simplicity, then, Louise Bourgeois’
Personages to get an idea of form. When form domi-
nates and pushes our understanding of reality, the forms
themselves can be the most provocative elements of
all. I chose a form, made it black, and suddenly power
emerged; the result is incredible to me. Two bodies, two
forms, two beings. Just two. They interact in a beautiful,
positive, infused way—their minds, their touch, it com-
pletely undoes me. I look at this finished piece and feel
love and beauty and everything I want in my paintings and
for myself in my future. I can see love and intimacy here. I
can almost trace it in their attraction.”

52
 3.13.11
Positioning
60” x 30”
“Each painting takes longer and longer to complete, as if
searching has taken on a new complexity. Right now, forms are
at the forefront. In this piece, the central bright orange form is
the key form, all the other forms relate to it. While it supports
the outer forms, it also controls them, like an unyielding force
that won’t budge. It could be viewed as either stabilizing or
inhibiting, but I feel optimism so it has a positive presence.
Usually, I don’t look at imposing forces as positive, I hate
them, but here I see it as a source of growth.
Like that strong orange form, my artwork is my growth and my
inhibition. I can’t be without painting, I can’t walk away from
it, and I am not myself without it. In some way, painting
and I are inextricably linked, like two complex
dimensions of the same thing.”

3.15.11
Weighted
22” x 16”
“White, blue and bright orange are the colors of heat. This
painting feels warm because of the steady pressure of forces
converging on a focal point. Like a slow hot machine, it holds
its unrelenting position. The yellow ochre forms and the draw-
ing are quietly trying to escape. They don’t attempt to fight; it
is about passively slipping through the cracks, like I did when I
was trying to survive my childhood. The amount of quiet deter-
mination it takes to reach legal independence, the continued
acceptance of things I can’t alter, the time spent waiting
to live my own life, that steadfast heat below the
surface is a hard thing to remember.”

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 3.24.11
Surveyed
24” x 18”
“The balance of the suspended yellow ochre form and the
softly drawn form along the horizon line feels like a living
thing to me. Like a pendulum it could be offset and swing
back again. Underneath the horizon line is a subtle
drawing: a brain or a thought working. The long, rect-
angular, dense shape along the left side seems to be
entering my paintings a lot lately, like a hard hand or
a firm decision. With the blue open space, all of these
elements have a broad, airy sky inviting them to harness
their energy and then rush out.”

3.27.11
Roaming
30” x 66”
“When I finally faced this panel after two failed attempts,
I knew I needed to ‘hide’ myself and the painting so that
the stresses that had interfered before couldn’t find us.
As I laid out the two-dimensional forms on the surface of
the panel, my mind wrapped around them and saw them
as three-dimensional hiding places. The long horizontal
expanse, with its invitations to walk into its crevices
and turns, reminds me of Emily Bowser’s installations. I
sought, like in installation art, to create an alternate real-
ity where I could freeze myself into snow-covered fields
and ice over my mind so that my thoughts would slow
down and my view would clear. This land is so large and
I am so small walking along the lines, the sky overhead is
dark and heavy and my steps fall lightly into each turn.”

54
 4.16.11
Heave and Fall
48” x 28”
“This is resignation, letting yourself be completely dismantled,
accepting that your body is being pulled apart and you are
giving in to it, maybe partly because you are already torn
apart inside and there is no pain in it now. The colors signify
acceptance. They are meek and calm. This is not a battle, this
resignation is driven by sadness, acknowledging that you never
controlled who you were. Outside forces built everything, your
faults, your strengths, the things about you that you hate. In
the midst of all of this, though, the person I want to be is ris-
ing to the surface. There isn’t joy yet, there is still a tiredness
for having carried it around for so long. Finally I’m becoming
undressed of all the forces that made me and now
I can decide how it will go.”

4.23.11
Against the Stay
36” x 24”
“The black crook is the defining moment of this painting. It is
trying to hold everything perfectly in balance, like a long-suf-
fering child that would do anything to keep their world intact.
There is an energy pulling at the elbow, trying to dislodge it so
that those carefully balanced forms finally fall under their own
weight. When I first drew the two lines that eventually became
the black form, I saw clearly how precarious a painting it must
be that is held up by only two lines. Without that crook,
it simply wouldn’t be anymore.”

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 4.27.11
Wedged In
34” x 22”
“This is being pushed apart from the inside. It’s not like
a seed pod that separates as something grows from it,
not a birth, but more like a fierce corrosion, something
that gets inside of you and eats away at you; fear, ill-
ness, abuse, loss. These raw internal struggles become
unexpectedly exposed, and like a deer in headlights, the
recognition suddenly blinds you. Your heart is caught in
the headlights—the bright red and green colors signify
shock. If you were prepared for this, the colors would be
thick and defensive. But this whole painting is about not
being prepared for the tragedies of life, it’s about being
blown wide open like a firecracker.”

5.2.11
Allowing Room
28” x 22”
“The moment that the open space, and sparse lines
on the left side appeared, I knew I had it. This piece
is about thinking clearly by pushing aside unwanted
thoughts. Dense, confusing thoughts move to the right
side of the piece and my mind is free to stretch and
breathe and explore. It’s the most refreshing painting
I’ve done in a long time. All the mire is washed out of the
recesses of my mind and the essential thoughts appear.
I was painting the essential brain.”

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 5.7.11
Latched
48” x 30”
“The dark blue ‘arms’ are wrapped around the drawing as if
to crush it, but the drawing has its own subtle power, its own
force that keeps it from being suffocated. In the beginning of
this painting, the drawing was free and roamed all over. As it
progressed, I began to enclose the drawing, intending to make
it feel as trapped as I feel by my own history. But the drawing
broke through, and ultimately there is a balance: of
oppression and the struggle to get past it.”

5.13.11
Opposed
44” x 28”
“Frustrated at the people both bearing down on me and
failing me in my life, I started this painting wanting to scream
out in an anger, which surfaced as the dark form pushing
in from the left. Charging in like a stampede, its crushing force
is overwhelming. Going under, you reach up, your voice reaches
up, and your body jerks unnaturally. It is all so uncertain.”

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 5.16.11
Contracting Forms
24” x 36”
“Like being in one of those machines that crushes cars,
the cluster of forms on the lower left side is locked in by
constricting forces. As I was painting, it became impor-
tant that I give all of the aggressive energy some room
to dissipate, and I found that room in the central open
space. Perhaps this was a negotiation. I was negotiating
with life’s pressures, negotiating with the turmoil of line
and form, accepting the constancy of this antagonism, in
exchange for some clear space of my own.”

5.23.11
Momentum Shifts
24” x 38”
“This piece is about movement, speed, and power. Chris
said to me that I am still living my life even though I have
been stuck for so long in a struggle to move forward and
overcome my history. When he said it, it startled me.
It has been hard for me to see that I am still moving
forward, and that I do control my future. The forms in this
painting evolved into some semblance of that locomotion,
that determination to live my life. There is so much
speed and power radiating away from the past,
the future is lighting up.”

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 6.8.11
Prospect in White
58” x 30”
“This painting builds on the concept of the previous painting.
Thinking about the future and moving forward, I have no idea
what is going to unfold. The open white space holds all of the
unknowns, and also the wanting, the hoping for something.
There are still forms that hold me up and push me down and
confuse me but all the power is in the white.
The small, barely-there seed in the center, it holds possibility. I
see it as a family growing—the pain and hardship of family and
the hope of all it can be too. But the hardships don’t dominate,
they are just there, part of the picture, while
my attention stays on the white.”

6.14.11
Defiance
22” x 38“
“The landscape around them is weakening but these two
forces, the bodies of blue, are still reaching out for each other.
The motivating force is instinct, basic human instinct, like the
bond between parent and child. The natural force of the
human heart is defying the inevitable decay of that
relationship’s environment.”

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 6.22.11
Of Many
30” x 108”, diptych
“This is my first landscape that is not a widespread,
lonely landscape of the desert. It is complicated, with
intersections, difficulties, movement and power struggles. (See pp. 38, 39 for larger image)
These forms are forcefully cutting into each other, trying
to find a place, trying to dominate, or trying to hide. This
painting takes the different personalities of society, of
different people, and forces them to co-exist, like family
members forced into relationships with each other by
chance, birth or genetics. Choice is not always a factor.
This landscape of many is nothing like my usual land-
scapes of one or two. It is a mess of people, all awkward
and different and grasping, trying to adapt to an environ-
ment that they didn’t choose, that they were dropped
into. I can be any or all of the forms, I can rest in any
spot, like a realization that I am all of those people.”

6.28.11
Overtaken
30” x 66“
“The power of the dark beige form striking down into
the white feels both violent and comforting. To say
‘comforting’ may seem irrational, but growing up as I did
in a violent household, there’s a sense of normalcy that
comes with this kind of aggression. I know it’s unhealthy,
but the dysfunction is familiar: I recognize it and see its
presence in my past. Now it’s safe on the panel, trans-
formed into something beautiful; I’ve walked away from it
and everything is where it should be.”

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 7.2.11
Bound
22” x 28”
“Underneath its layers, this painting began as a whole form,
but by working the surface with paints and pencils and scrap-
ers, it slowly dissolved into cracked pieces, barely fused along
the seams. The fractured remnants are speaking of what
happens as we age, of edges hardening, of changes we didn’t
anticipate. But the whole, the beginning, is still underneath.”

7.6.11
Composing
28” x 48”
“The night before I completed this painting, I realized that I’d
never forgiven anyone. Looking back, I saw that no one had
ever shown me how, the behaviors modeled for me were either
holding a grudge forever or pretending like the offense never
happened. With only these tools handed down to me, I’ve left
behind a path of missed opportunities for growth. But now I
need to hold onto the people that have hurt me.
The only way to do this is to forgive them.
As I started painting, all I could think about was this puzzle,
this mystery of what forgiveness is. I knew it had to be calm
and good, and I knew it would bring healing. I think if I can
forgive these people, and carry that lesson forward, that
it will change the course of my life.”

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 7.16.11
Let Out
48” x 30”
“It’s been a slow evolution, the relationship between line
and paint on my panels. I didn’t start the painting with a
drawing like I often do—the drawing came as the paint
came, they emerged together, neither is dominant. It is
the emotional calm of this balance between drawn line
and paint that reminds me of Paul Klee.
A different time, a different mind, when I lived in the
barn among a vast collection of MOMA books that went
all the way back to the museum’s first days. And Paul
Klee’s books were always open. Those seeds, these lines,
were planted at a certain time, held their place
and eventually emerged when they were
needed—art has that ability.”

7.19.11
Mindful
38” x 26”
“There is a strong compositional resemblance in this
piece to the first painting I did in Stephen Zaima’s class
in college. It’s interesting to me that some forms have
stayed with me my whole life, and it’s an important
part of my art practice to see these consistencies. Even
before college, from the very first art assignment I ever
completed, there was a mantra in my head that I didn’t
want to create paintings from any particular subject mat-
ter, I wanted only to make work that came from my own
mind, without direct visual reference to the outside world.
This was always my goal, and it seemed impossible until I
realized that I had nothing to lose. I started doing this in
Zaima’s class. The environment he created was the first
that gave me permission to try. Seeing the connections
between my work then and now fortifies my resolve
to trust in my self and my work.”

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 7.23.11
Following Time
30” x 60”
“Painting this I was filled with doubt, I questioned myself every
step of the way until the end. When the last stroke, the final
line, defined the shape in the white field, I was overcome with
emotion. Insecurity had overshadowed the entire painting, but
I was so determined. So many things about the painting were
strong that I could not give up on it; I would see it to the point
of that last line. When drawing that single line into the white
paint, my doubt ceased. This painting was going to exist and I
fought for it—it all depended on that line.”

8.1.11
Lengths
26” x 42”
“Complexity grew like a force across this panel and I didn’t try
to simplify it. Not only these expanses of detail, but also new
colors are finding their way into my work. I notice that I am
wandering around in these experimentations with color and
detail, and I love it, but I am confused by it, too. Sometimes
I feel in control and sometimes, like in this painting, the ele-
ments control me. When this happens, it usually means
I’m at the beginning of a good stretch of new work.
Welcome, August.”

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 8.3.11
Into Place
22” x 34”
“Things are continuing to build—on Monday I predicted
that a new body of work was coming and I was right.
Something is changing. It is both intoxicating
and confusing as hell.
This piece felt like a struggle between the environment
and the individual. I am twisting and struggling with
the environment until what I want from this weary world
starts to fit into place. Like a combination lock: turn, turn,
turning until it clicks; then turning in the opposite direc-
tion and so on. This giant system of ‘things’ we have to
navigate: taxes, rent, car insurance, wanting to be loved,
resolving conflict, relationships… just keep turning them,
keep trying to make them work and small things will
start to click into place.”

8.5.11
Secured
24” x 36”
“This painting has an axis—I’ve noticed this axis in other
paintings recently. Usually it only acts as a force guiding
the composition, but here it is a form in and of
itself. It’s symbolic of how I am trying to strengthen
myself. Here, I’m at the center in control, forcing
the future to bend around me.”

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 8.8.11
Twofold
22” x 16”
“Here there are two sides of myself: a weaker, more innocent
side—that part of me still alive through the memory of my
childhood. And then another side—solid and determined, that
knows what needs to be done. In the painting a strong, dark
vertical form supports a softer, more emotive form. They
lean on each other; they need each other.”

8.13.11
Passages
24” x 60”
“This piece reflects all the pressures of this week…after doing
a series of paintings that projected a powerful individual, I
crashed. Confidence is now pushed back by uncertainty. The
terrain of this painting shows the complexity of grappling with
a major life decision: some parts are beautiful, some parts
are aggressive, and some parts are overpowering… and some
part of me wants to separate myself from it and return to the
previous paintings. This is a landscape of the places I’ve been
in trying to make this transition. How do I decide to change
everything I know, how do I decide to go forward, how
do I even know that I want to.”

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 8.15.11
Cessation
28” x 96”, diptych
“Thinking of Iceland and being isolated, the desire for
that led to this painting. I want to be alone to make art,
but I am struggling with the obligations of life. The white
(See pp. 18, 19 for larger image)
form is where I want to be: a Brancusi bust, sleeping,
resting, and looking for peace, drifting above the unrest
of daily life. From left to right I was painting the journey
to Iceland: beginning with the life I’m leaving behind,
through to the experience of being there. The settling into
this new place, the peace of it, takes over my heart.”

8.17.11
Overcast
22” x 28”
“I felt an overcast of sadness. This piece is about needing
someone. It’s a moment, a lone moment of pain when
you depend on that person to hold you up—you don’t try
to carry the burden yourself, they can be the strong one.
Letting go of your autonomy and rushing into that
other person, it is meaningful.”

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 8.31.11
Hastening
24” x 38”
“A slow loosening; the central white form is detaching. The
other forms scramble with great effort to pull it back in, but
their eventual success is uncertain at best. I feel like this rep-
resents how little control we have over certain things in
our lives: I can’t stop someone from believing something
false, I can’t stop someone from leaving me, I can’t stop
someone from staying away, I can’t stop anything
from breaking into pieces.”

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 SOLO EXHIBITIONS SELECTED GROUP Two-Person Exhibition
Biography
EXHIBITIONS Nahcotta Gallery
Histories
2011 Portsmouth, NH
Nahcotta Gallery
Portsmouth, NH, 2011 (Largely) Small Works Abstraction Exhibition
Gallery 1581, Boston Lana Santorelli Gallery
Rose Umerlik: Recent
Graduate School of New York, NY
Paintings
Susan Maasch Fine Art Psychoanalysis, 35th Annual Juried
Portland, ME, 2011 Boston, MA Competition
Curator, Alpers Fine Art Masur Museum of Art
Distances Within Us
Mark-Making, The Monroe, LA
Nahcotta Gallery
Portsmouth, NH, 2010 Presence of Line New-In Exhibition
Derfner Judaica Museum Hun Gallery
Intimacy of Forms Gilbert Pavilion Gallery New York, NY
Nahcotta Gallery Riverdale, NY
Portsmouth, NH, 2009 2007
Curator, Emily O’Leary
Underlying Details The Lakes…A Contemporary
2010 Interpretation
Nahcotta Gallery
60 Word/Min Art Critic, Chi-lin Lakes Gallery
Portsmouth, NH, 2007
Lori Waxman Meredith, NH
Linear Resonance and Space Gallery
the Echo of Form Painting Abstract
Portland, ME
Bowersock Gallery
Chi-lin Lakes Gallery
Ten Provincetown, MA
Meredith, NH, 2006
Nahcotta Gallery
2006
Abstract Thoughts Portsmouth, NH
Bowersock Gallery International 2006
Momentum VIII in New York
Provincetown, MA, 2006
George Marshall Gallery Hun Gallery
Forms in Color York, ME New York, NY
The Franklin Gallery
Fresh stART Exhibition Landscapes
Somersworth, NH, 2006
Tinlark Gallery Nahcotta Gallery
A Show of Marks Los Angeles, LA Portsmouth, NH
The Stone Church
Verbatim Cutting Edge
Newmarket, NH, 2005
Nahcotta Gallery Seacoast Gallery
Portsmouth, NH Portsmouth, NH
Sketchbook Project Juried Exhibition
Art House Gallery 100 Market Street
Brooklyn, NY Portsmouth, NH
2009 2005
Movement Exhibition Exhibition of Development of
Lana Santorelli Gallery Dartmouth Hitchcock Project
New York, NY Chi-lin Lakes Gallery
Meredith, NH
This I Believe
Nahcotta Gallery Open Juried Exhibition
Portsmouth, NH Barn Gallery
Ogunquit, ME
2008
Zufallsvariablen 2004
Takt Kunstprojektraum scissor, paper, stone
Gallery Chi-lin Lakes Gallery
Berlin, Germany Meredith, NH

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GRANTS, LECTURES,
RESIDENCIES, AWARDS
Finalist Grant
New Hampshire Charitable
Foundation–Piscataqua
Region Artist Advancement
Grant, 2009, 2011
Clowes Award
Vermont Studio Center
Johnson, VT, 2010
Berlin Art Now
Lecture
Portsmouth Public Library
Portsmouth, NH, 2008
Takt Kunstprojektraum
Artist Residency
Takt Kunstprojektraum
Gallery
Berlin, Germany, 2008
Manymini Artist Residency
The Berlin Office
Berlin, Germany, 2008
NH Cultural Exchange Grant
NH Department of Cultural
Resources & Park Street
Foundation,
NH State Council on the Arts
Concord, NH, 2008
Best In Show Award
“New-In Exhibition,”
Hun Gallery
New York, NY, 2008
PERMANENT
COLLECTIONS
The Hebrew Home
at Riverdale
Riverdale, NY
Dartmouth Hitchcock
Cancer Center
Hanover, NH
SELECTED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Intimacy of Forms
Book published,
Rose Umerlik, 2009
Taking Shape
Anne Bryant,
Portsmouth Herald
November 1st, 2009
Review, Underlying Details,
Rose Umerlik
Dustan Knight,
Art New England
August/September, 2007
International 2006
in New York
Exhibition catalogue
Hun Gallery,
New York, NY, 2006
Abstract Thoughts,
Rose Umerlik
Kahrin Deines,
Provincetown Banner
May 26th, 2006
Fresh Paint, The Seacoast’s
Emerging Artists
Jeanne’ McCartin,
Portsmouth Herald Spotlight
January 26th, 2006
Dover artist Rose Umerlik
makes her marks
Ryan Alan,
Foster’s Sunday Citizen
October 16th, 2005
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Fine Arts,
Syracuse University
College of Visual and
Performing Arts
69
BOOK & COVER DESIGN

Alyssa Grenning is a fine artist, illustrator, and designer residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
thinitrealslice.com
Michael Winters is a fine art photographer and designer living in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
michaelwintersphotography.com

INTRODUCTION

Shawn Hill has been reviewing art in New England and New York since 1990. He has an MA in Art
History, and is an assistant professor at Montserrat College of Art, where he has taught since 2003.
He is a member of AICA, the International Association of Art Critics.

PAGE 1

Michael Recht was my advisor and mentor during my time at Syracuse University. The constancy of
his belief in me saved me then and continues to influence me now. I will always be indebted to him.

PAGES 2-5

Images taken from Writing Room, an installation completed at The Berlin Office in Germany, 2008.
This work was an important part of my exploration of integrating writing into my art practice.

PRINT

Edition One Books

2261 5th St., Berkeley, CA
editiononebooks.com

FIRST EDITION

125 copies

ISBN 978-1-4507-9658-3

© 2011 Rose Umerlik. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronical, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without first seeking the written permission of the copyright owners and of the
publishers, authors and artist.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Rose Umerlik wishes to thank Chris Greiner for his support through this incredibly challenging project.

70