"through the perfect darkness comes the perfect light..." Linda Joyce Franks is a contemporary figurative painter and graphic designer who creates imagery from the darker regions of the realm of the fantastical. Drawn to melancholy literary heroines and lusty pagan themes she delves into the subconscious, occult mind to find beauty in its depths. Born in 1960 in Milwaukee Wisconsin, inspired at a very early age by the whimsical cartoons drawn for her by her father, Linda has considered herself an artist for most of her life. Talent and artistic "vision" are things that she very much feels are in her blood as quite a few members of her family display natural unschooled ability. Linda has sought some formal fine art academic training at the university level but has advanced mostly by way of independent study and experimentation. Her professional background is in design - the pursuit of which has occupied a better part of her adult life. While she has spent many years in the study and drawing of the human figure, it is only within the past 6 years that she has taken up oil painting as a serious discipline. Linda enjoys exploring allegorical, literary and esoteric themes in her work, many inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Other influences include DaVinci, Degas, Gustav Klimt, Jean Delville, William Bouguereau, John William Waterhouse and Alphonse Mucha. Linda currently abides in New Orleans. The artist's statement: "Illusion is familiar terrain to the artist, creating the impression of existence through image - giving dimension to the dimensionless idea. Depth appears on a flat surface. That which mimicks the fullness of form begs embracing. The canvas becomes a mirror of the soul casting a window into an alternate reality - pulling us through into dimensions of new possibilities. Art is a visceral experience. Our preferences are inexplicable. Imagery has meaning to us at a gut level. We are spoken to in terms which we feel deeply and which quite often defy description. Lust and love are this way. My goal is to evoke this type of experience. That kind of feeling experienced with an out-of time "meta-event". An impression which remains with you as if the moment had just occurred. I want to reach people in that way... a way in which they will remember. To express profound longing for a new paradigm of honest valuation, true acceptance and real unconditional love. The voice of my work is my soul. I moarn the blight of industrialized man upon the earth. I sing the sirens song of sorrow for the violent oppression of the profound love, passion and beauty of the feminine spirit. I present images of goddesses, sometimes in the throes of death, always in the throes of passion - sometimes dead to the world, never dead to herself." - LJF To see more of Linda's work visit her online exhibit @: www.nimbvs.com