Cecelia Feld (’76 M.F.A.) creates artwork like a musician plays jazz. She improvises. She finds the harmonies, themes and variations in art and captures them in paintings, photographs, prints and collages.
“Whether I am in a place with a wonderful landscape or in a city, details catch my eye,” says the longtime Dallas resident. “When I go to work, it’s often easy to pull out natural forms that these images might suggest. But that is for the viewer to find.”
Feld’s work has been in juried and solo exhibitions and corporate collections, including Frito-Lay, IBM and Delta Airlines. She has earned such honors as the MacDowell Colony Visual Artist Fellowship and a Residency/Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center.
See Cecelia's artwork
She credits faculty members Wilfred “Flip” Higgins, Henry Whiddon and Don Schol as some of those who inspired her at UNT.
“I was impressed with how many teachers they had in the art department and how many different directions I could go,” Feld says. “Those three teachers were the most important connections for me. They were very interested in students grasping the fundamentals and where you went with it. The enthusiasm they instilled in me made me want to do this as lifetime work.”
After graduation, Feld focused on large-scale abstract paintings. Then in 1990, she pursued printmaking using techniques learned at UNT. Now, she uses solar plate etching — using UV light and water instead of toxic chemicals — at her studio on her farm in Bells.
“This is not something that people retire from,” she says. “This is the work I want to do all the time. It’s a never-ending learning experience.”
