Young Artist Profile

Shelly Truman Murney

Age: 34.

Hometown: Lompoc, Calif.; currently living with her husband, Peter, north of Davenport, Wash., at Tolstoy Farm.

Kind of art: Photography and painting.

College: Bachelor of Art, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1992; Master of Art, University of Iowa, 1995; Master of Fine Art, University of Montana, 2001.

Day job: Art instructor at Spokane Falls Community College and Spokane Art School.

Current show: “The Garden,” featuring black and white photographs, at Colville Arts Foundation Gallery. Artist reception today from 4 to 7 p.m.; show runs through July 17.

Kind of art: Murney’s art is generally self-referential, drawing on her personal experience for subject matter. Her show at the Colville Arts Foundation Gallery features botanical studies from the family garden at Tolstoy Farm. “We have four big gardens where we grow most of our food, and the flowers and plants that I photograph,” says Murney. “I photograph at close range, with shallow depth of field. I am interested in the extraction and distillation of form, so I use black and white film.”

Her paintings are abstract in style, with large fields of color that make oblique references to her commute from the farm to work in Spokane. She sometimes combines photography and paintings using a technique called cliche verre. “I print my drawings onto photographic paper,” she says.

Influences: Painting: Lee Krasner, Gerhard Richter, Richard Diebenkom and Nathan Olivera. Photography: Lewis Baltz, Linda Connor, Imogen Cunningham, Terry Evans and Minor White.

What is your intent? “I am committed to making art that enriches my life experience.”

Upcoming show: Chase Gallery in Spokane City Hall, “New Paintings by Shelly Truman Murney, Patty Dike Haag and Julie Haack,” March 29, 2005, to May 2005.

Websites: www.shellyland.com and www.tolstoyfarm.org.