About

Short Bio

Thelma Appel's Brief Artist Statement and Bio

Statement

What was important and in the forefront of my life has always informed my art: whether it be outrage at social injustice , dealing with personal loss, dislocation, or environmental degradation. 
In my latest pieces I work to depict the effects of exploiting  natural resources without considering the consequences. Whether representational or abstract,  I have, in paintings, collages or assemblages, emphasized pictorial cohesion and integrity in order to unify subject matter with abstract synthesis. 

Biography

Thelma Appel, having experienced childhood trauma and dislocation, used art as a tool for coping and transcendence... Before her teens she was already buffeted about to two vastly different countries and cultures. By the time she was a teenager in England, the third vastly different country and culture, she was drawing for meditation and self comfort. Her teachers, recognizing her gifts, suggested that she apply to art school. Afer graduating from St. Martins School of Art,  she settled in Bennington, Vermont. she became immersed in depicting the landscapes of New England and the South West. These were commercially successful at the time and she was given several solo shows in New York City galleries.  

Twelve years later she moved to New York City and then to upstate New York, where her work changed dramatically. She began to experiment with fabric collages, creating imaginary cities, 'Cities of Dreams', and exploring metaphysical and spiritual themes through Biblical allegories. In noticing the vast differences in the topography of her newer surrounds, she focused more on rock formations and landscapes rather than the prairie grasses of the south west or New England's forests and lakes that she created in Vermont.  Her  visceral painterly responses to the 9-11 tragedy were done at this period, as well. 

Dislocation occurred again in 2003, and Appel moved to Waterbury Connecticut. She soon experienced loss of a loved one and began to work through her grief by painting a series of images depicting the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot: A human journey from birth to death.
Soon after, Appel became interested in aspects of time: temporal and eternal, which initiated a series of paintings on the theme of time; the Times Square series, which were both symbolic and representational (temporal). Eternal time was expressed in a series of  large gestural abstractions symbolising  cosmic time. 
The latest paintings and collages depict the adverse consequences of environmental degradation by climate change and human greed. Her interest in social narrative is evident in the vignettes of the LIFE in COVID  painting.