Her exhibition at the Venue, Fine Arts and Gifts opened Friday. The Venue curator David Colman has known the artist for years. When he thought about featuring her in his store, there was no question.
“She’s sort of a given,” he said.
Educated in printmaking, photography and drawing at IU, McQueen has a diverse arts background. She described her style as “eclectic.”
“I have a large variety of styles,” McQueen said. “It’s an impressionistic realism.”
Her favorite techniques are painting and drawing.
“I work directly from nature,” she said. The Venue’s show featured some large pieces made directly from leaves. One of her favorite pieces so far involves the same technique., she said.
The exhibition showcased a handful of leaf prints. McQueen listed a print of a large elephant-ear leaf as her favorite. She said this work was more challenging than the rest. First of all, the print takes up four feet of space.
These plants grow all summer to achieve their monstrous size, she said. After cultivating the plant for months in the yard of her southern Indiana forest home, the artist plucked one of its leaves for her print.
What made this specific work special is hidden inside her technique. Out of all the leaves used to print on her pieces, McQueen said she had a connection with this specific elephant-ear leaf.
While working with the greenery, she found herself within the leaf.
“It’s just my imagination inside the vein of the leaves,” she said.
Finding that connection made this work fun, she said.
But for McQueen, inspiration does not come just from nature. She has worked as a teacher since 1985. She currently works at Jackson Creek Middle School.
McQueen said working with Bloomington’s youth inspires her.
“Because they are looking at things in a fresh perspective, sometimes their naiveté rubs off,” she said.
At times, teaching can be intense, McQueen said.
She teaches teenagers, she pointed out. Specifically, McQueen loves being around kids, she said.
Many recognize her talent of teaching art to the community. She has a collection of awards sprinkled in with her paint brushes.
McQueen received two Lilly Teacher Creativity Awards and was selected as the Middle School art educator of the year by the Art Education Association of Indiana.
According to the Art Education Association of Indiana, recipients of the awards are recognized for demonstrating excellence in the classroom, active participation and leadership at the local, state and/or national level, publications and/or exhibits, advocacy for the arts and other art-education-related accomplishments.
After 30 years of teaching, though, Colman said McQueen would retire from the Monroe County School Corporation this school year.
Currently, McQueen is working to expand her artistic style. She is currently working in an entirely different “vein” of techniques.
In the past, she leaned more toward water media, like watercolors, she said. However, now she is experimenting with acrylics.
Also, she is touching upon an entirely different genre.
Her works used to focus more toward landscapes. Now she is looking toward human subjects.
“I’m doing figures right now,” she said. “It’s absolutely different. It’s psychologically different.”
For an exhibit to release next year, McQueen said she is stretching her technique toward including female portraits.
Because the subject is human, she said there would be an inevitable psychological aspect accompanying her new topic.
This human touch will lend a physical personality for McQueen to pull from in her painting.
Unlike the trees and plants of before, this series will be more of a challenge to create, she said.
McQueen said artists must experiment to get better at their technique.
They cannot stay stagnant in their work if they want to improve.
“Artists are always looking for new things to try,” McQueen said. “Stretch yourself, get better at what you do.”
When people look at her work, McQueen hopes they pull two things out of what they see in front of them.
First, she hopes they gain an appreciation for where they come from. More specifically, she hopes people gain a love of the earth and the seasons.
Second, McQueen said she hopes her passion for the earth is reflected in each swipe of paint in her works.
“I hope they can tell I care about nature,” she said.
