Untitled
Queen Brooks holds both a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the Ohio State University. She is the recipient of several awards, the most recent being the Ohioana Career Award 2008, the Lila Wallace, Reader’s Digest International Artist Award 1993 which won her a three month residency in the French port city of Abidjan in the Republic of the Ivory Coast, West Africa. Brooks is listed in the African American profiles of the HistoryMakers located in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress. Her works are in numerous private collections throughout the world and in held in the collections of the Columbus Museum of Art, the Hilton, Ohio Dominican and Otterbein Universities as well as the Kings Art Complex, Columbus, OH. She created the entrance for Kwanza Playground, Ohio’s first African American themed playground. A retired adjunct art professor, Brooks now heads an art afterschool and summer program.
This was an intuitive work and a challenge regarding the medium I chose to use creating this art piece. I had never worked in linoleum to the extent of this size and complexity. I had no preconceived ideas when starting the piece and begin creating from the edges in. I normally work in an abstract manner with pattern, symbols, and color. The symbol of a tree is part of an image vocabulary I often use. The tree symbol implanted itself in my mind and within this work. I than started to envision planetary life forms, flowers and lastly urban buildings. I physically fashioned my thoughts in the linoleum but have yet to determine what meaning, if anything this work holds for me. I enjoyed creating the patterns that make this work such a strong piece and for perhaps the first time I felt color was unnecessary. I am immensely grateful for the guidance and assistance of artist/ printer Nicholas Hill, without his encouragement and help I doubt this work would exist.