The Bistro Iberia exhibit: May 2024
Subliminal Travels, 60 in x 30 in, acrylic on canvas
Downtown Lemontree, 18 in x 24 in, acrylic on canvas
Synchronicity, 24 in x 20 in, acrylic on canvas
About the Artist
Yolanda Navarra Fleming, NJ-born abstract expressionist/mixed-media artist and writer, says, “I like to say I grew up on canvas. I first learned about art as my mother's figure model when I was little. Now I appreciate it from both sides of the canvas.”
Though she favors acrylic paint and oil pastels, she likes to mix mediums, and is often influenced by whatever she’s reading or writing at the time, as well as movies and music. “But an even bigger influence lately are artist friends made through my mother, many of whom are quite a bit older than I. Those who have passed away haunt me while I work in the best way possible.”
Fleming began making collages in 1991 and had her first exhibit of collaged Tarot cards at the Point Pleasant Library in 1992. She got serious about painting in 2017 when a friend introduced her to a young woman studying Shamanism. During a guided meditation (also known as a Shamanic journey) while listening to binaural beats in headphones that alter your brain state. “Suddenly I was inspired to paint. I was awakened to a room in my mind that I now visit on a regular basis, except that now I don’t lie down and close my eyes to get there; I stand before a canvas and paint. Whether I do it for 15 minutes or six hours, I still get the same feeling that I have one foot in the material world and the other in the spirit world.”
In 2021, she became an exhibiting and prize-winning member of the Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury and an associate member of the Allied Artists of America, among other NJ-based groups. She has since won the Miguel Figueras Memorial Award for Fanciful Painting and an Achievement Award in the 2022 Open Juried Show, the Barbara Shieldkred Mixed Media Award in the 2023 Open Juried Show and the Alice Tendler Award for Artistic Innovation in the 2024 EyeSights Photography Show.
Her work hangs in various public spaces and private homes in NJ, NY, CA and PA. She lives in Highlands, NJ.
Contact
Email: Yolandaflemingart@yahoo.com
www.yolandafleming.com
Call/Text: 732.259.4400
Yolanda Navarra Fleming, 2023
Photo by Guy Cash Fleming.