Roxanne Pizzuto ’88

My earliest childhood memory is holding my sister’s hand as we climbed big marble steps to enter the Cincinnati Art Museum. The quiet reverence reminded me of going to church but once inside it turned out to be a lot more fun! I paint because I love color. I love mixing different hues and moving a loaded paintbrush across the canvas or board. But beginning a new painting is both exciting and uncomfortable. I find a clean white surface staring back at me a bit stressful. I prefer to just start painting with a large brush no matter what the panel dimensions are. I lay in blocks of color that I’m intuitively drawn to depending on what I’m painting. I start out with general shapes and colors and gradually move to specifics as the painting evolves. I’m fascinated by the natural properties of color, light primarily but also how color changes depending on what it is next to or surrounded by. I prefer to paint from observation but inventing and exaggerating the color is where I find the most joy.