First Friday’s ARTScrawl led me to Palette Contemporary Art & Craft in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights. Janet Bothne, the featured artist for November, opened last Friday with her exhibition Finding Finished. Bothne says, “One of the hardest parts of the painting process is knowing when a painting is truly finished.” She has sometimes hung and shown a work only to get it back into the studio and give it one final stroke or "punctuation" before being fully satisfied. Over time, Bothne has learned that there is a critical point in a painting’s “life cycle” where one must stop before "killing" some of its most compelling elements. She looks very carefully at each painting to examine what’s working and what isn’t, before painting its final 10%. Sometimes, she'll ponder a piece for months before her eye provides answers as to what is required for its completion.
One of Bothne most intriguing works is “The Daily Din,” a 36" x 30" acrylic & mixed media on canvas. With this painting, Bothne began layering paper scraps and vinyl letters into her work to examine marketing messages that pervade our culture. One day, instead of being annoyed by the latest pile of junk mail, she looked at it as a bottomless source of free art supplies. Bothne says, “These marketing messages are so ubiquitous, we digest them constantly without thinking, or even noticing, their demands for our attention.”
Throughout her career, Bothne has referred to intense color as her “natural anti-depressant.” Born near Boston, she studied art at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, The Fuller Museum - MA, UCLA, and Brentwood Art Center in California. Bothne relocated to the Los Angeles area in 1996 working as a graphic designer, but her passion for art drove her to leave her job to focus on painting full-time in 2001. Since that time Bothne has exhibited her striking and profound work in numerous group and solo shows, including venues such as the Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Art - Sales & Rental Gallery and Art Ulsan - Ulsan, South Korea. In 2013, Bothne moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Finding Finished will hang through December 5th at Palette Contemporary Art and Craft located at 7400 Montgomery Blvd. NE, www.palettecontemporary.com, (505) 855-7777. 
Palette Contemporary Art & Craft features a variety of contemporary fine art glass, original paintings, limited edition signed prints, ceramics, marbles, and wearable art. It searches locally and abroad to bring a collection of contemporary art and craft with a colorful edge and clean lines by both emerging and renowned artists. Gallery hours are Monday thru Saturday: 10AM - 6PM.
