Artist’s Statement: Patricia Berger

Born in 1940, I grew up in Bronxville, NY, living with my grandparents, my mother and brother after my father's death in WWII. I graduated from Colby College and Cornell University School of Medicine, and worked as a primary care physician from 1970 till 2002 when I fully retired. I am married to Dr. Robert Berger and have two wonderful daughters. Since retirement I have kept busy with figure skating, sailing, traveling with family, art making, and working as an activist to establish a single payer health care system in Massachusetts.

New to the art world, I started taking courses in 1993 at the Massachusetts College of Art and the Museum School in Boston. Since 1996 I have been taking courses with Kate Ransohoff at Turtle studios in Watertown, MA. with Kate I have developed my painting style but more importantly I have been challenged to paint about my "Beneath the Surface" self that has meaning and feeling. Some of the paintings in this exhibit are autobiographical and family-oriented, and others have more whimsey and playfulness that relate to images of childhood. I have exhibited in several locations in the Boston area as well as a local gallery in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. I also have paintings hanging permanently in the Boothbay YMCA and the Boothbay Town Hall, and murals at Bet's Fish Fry in Boothbay and Brenda's Lobster Shop on Southport Island.

I believe that everyone is at least a secret artist and there are myriad ways of being artistic and creative. I also believe there are times in our lives when our artistic selves get pushed aside by the demands of living and providing for others. Fortunately for me I am now in a retired phase of life after having been a primary care internist, wife and mother, so I have time as well as years of seeing, living and remembering to share. I have summered on Mouse Island and Southport Island in Boothbay Harbor, ME, all my life. I feel my creative soul is somehow attached to the ocean and islands. My summer childhood experiences and the experiences of my own children on Southport provide me with images that have great meaning to me and hopefully translate into feelings that others can enjoy through my art. I have been painting in watercolor, acrylic, tempera, and have experimented with monotypes. Regardless of the medium I believe the best art is the art that comes from the soul generated by our life experiences. I consider myself very lucky to have lived on two incredibly beautiful Maine islands and belonged to a coastal community full of images that have captured my heart and imagination.

60 Health Street
Brookline, MA 02445