S.R. Berger grew up surrounded by her grandmother’s 1920’s paintings and lithographs. She was encouraged to pick up the brush and try. Berger remembers and is inspired by her grandmother’s tenacity, fearlessness and encouraging words.
Painting and writing is how she enters the world. It is how she makes sense of it. She has been painting and working with mixed media in a serious way for about ten years. Earlier, she had been a competitive gymnast and diver, only to have her career cut short by undetected congenital problems resulting in more than three decades of chronic physical difficulties, a dozen corrective surgeries and an equal number of lengthy recoveries. It was during those recoveries that she began to write and experiment with the brush.
Her approach is through the senses. By embracing and transforming the physical and emotional reminders of her past into imagery, she channels these into something tangible. Everyone has their own story; she has found a way to incorporate her own. She doesn’t always manage it, but her preferred stance is not to take herself too seriously. Berger is happiest when she can laugh at herself and the ironies the world displays in abundance. With oils and mixed media—she experiments. She delights in the natural world. Organic shapes in clouds, trees or the lake inspire her. With memories or from imagination, she paints abstractions of this world or the worlds she would like to inhabit. She has work in private collections, purchased at shows or done by commission.
At one point, she made a mixed media piece painted on a 10-inch round glass table with a wrought iron base. The image was sealed with resin. It sold from a commercial gallery to a woman Berger later discovered was in stage-four breast cancer who told the owner that she bought it because she “wanted to surround [herself] with things of beauty.” Berger was moved by what the buyer said and it became a pivotal experience which fueled Berger’s determination to grow as a painter and mixed media artist. She is a member of Images Gallery Cooperative. This was the venue for her first solo exhibit and she participates in group shows regularly. Berger is self-taught and continues to thrive in this artists' environment. She lives and laughs with her supportive, funny, bright poet / attorney husband, Tom, in Chicago.
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