Roxene Rockwell's work is primarily about layering and using nature, trees in particular, to symbolize humankind and life's experiences. For Rockwell, using the tree image is very personal and complex. A single tree has the power to represent the human condition, as we stand morally strong, alone, or physically frail, bending resiliently with the wind, or succumbing to the storm.

However, to Rockwell, trees also show visible scars and life experiences so much more so than humans do. Humans externally show aging through the wrinkles of time, pain and suffering through the scars from stitches received as a child, battle wounds and missing limbs, life's surgeries, falls and accidents. So much of our personal emotions and deep childhood experiences – our roots so to speak – do not always show up on the surface as they do on trees.

The underlying layers of this body of work comes from Rockwell's haunted childhood of neglect, abuse and of the events narrowly escaped due to her tenacity to survive and thrive. In both her paintings and collaged surfaces, she uses a variety of textures and rendered layers of tree bark to represent the deep layered complexities of our individual personalities.

Above all, it is Rockwell's goal is to create images of beauty and introspection that call attention to both the similar, and divergent ways that nature and humankind deal with life's experiences.

Born and raised in Los Angeles where she currently resides, Roxene Rockwell is a fourth generation Angelino. Rockwell has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries including; the Riverside Art Museum; the Robert V. Fullerton Museum in San Bernardino; the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard; Louis Stern Fine Arts in Los Angeles; and Ruth Bachofner Gallery in Santa Monica, among others.

Roxene Rockwell's work is also featured in corporate and public collections including; the San Fernando Valley Metro Station in Van Nuys; the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance; the University of California, Riverside; NK. Shaclas, LTD., Nicosia, Cyprus, and Teleflora in Los Angeles.

Curated by Michele Cairella Fillmore, Gallery Director
Written excerpts by Roxene Rockwell

During the opening reception on Saturday, February 28, 4-7pm, the Kellogg Art Gallery will also open simultaneously, Joan Kahn: A Fifteen-Year Survey, Paintings 2000-2014 and Abstract Mystique featuring select works by artists Lorraine Cleary Dale, Virginia Katz, Trang Lê, Nancy Monk, Gretel Stephens, Leslie Love Stone & Maggie Tennesen.