RitaMarie Cimini, a fine artist living and working in Delaware, taps into the collective consciousness via common experiences. Trained as a formalist, Cimini’s paintings are physical objects whose surfaces allow the viewer to glimpse her working process. Her radiant paintings, informed by a daily meditation practice, investigate links between sight and interior vision.
Featured in multiple group and solo exhibitions, her work was notably included in an exhibit at Belskie Museum in Closter, NJ and the Monmouth Museum in Lincroft, NJ. While maintaining a studio practice, she also served, from August 2016 until June 2019, as President of Studio Montclair, a non-profit visual arts organization. Cimini facilitates meditation groups and writes about art and spirituality for Huffington Post, Sivana Spirit, and her website, rmcimini.com. Cimini, an inducted member of the National Association of Women Artists, holds an MFA in painting and sculpture from Bennington College and her work is held in private collections in the United States and abroad and in the public collections of Atlantic Health Systems, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the MC Hotel.
Statement
As a painter with a long standing meditation practice, which has engendered an interest in consciousness and transformation, I derive great pleasure when I observe a person being moved deeply as they stand before one of my paintings. Drawing on beauty surrounding us in water and celestial skies, I use light as a visual metaphor to depict fragility of form and our shared transitory state of being
Connecting with viewers through our shared consciousness, the paintings open the door to a spiritual world; offer the viewer a sense of transcendence, a glimpse into an existence apart from everyday activities. Many paintings begin with a primary layer of gray toned hues. I then build through a process of layering semi-transparent color and scraping and layering again. Sometimes I add raw pigment to create a tactile surface. The process of addition and subtraction is visible in the surface of the painting, and invites the viewer’s eye to travel around and through the paint, discovering hidden or obscured forms. The radiant paintings depict the reality of a spiritual life embodying a belief in interconnectivity and mystery.