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Pam Fingado was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she continues to live and work today. Raised by parents who had both attended the San Francisco Art Institute, Pam developed an interest in art at an early age. By the age of ten, she had already won her first award in art. Pam began as an abstract artist concentrating on collage and works on or of paper. Later, while studying at the California College of Arts and Crafts in the early 1980s, Pam began to focus on graphic arts and silk screen, and in 1984 she earned an art degree in printmaking from California State University at Hayward. Today, Pam's work incorporates both abstract and graphic qualities. Working primarily with oil pastels on paper, Pam combines architecturally dramatic arcs and angles with a theatrical color palette to create striking and evocative images of buildings, towns, and landscapes. Influenced by the colors and forms of California, the West, and the Pacific Ocean, Pam essentially records visual memories augmented and shaped by vivid colors and startling line compositions. A credentialed teacher, Pam has taught art to students at all levels from preschool to high school. As a teacher, as well as a mother and grandmother, Pam is constantly inspired by children's art and creative energy. She lives and works in the East Bay town of El Cerrito with her husband and youngest son, who like his mother has displayed artistic talent from a young age. |
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artist's statements
Artist's Statement: Ancestors (view images) A series of narratives that tell of my ancestors and other characters I have met throughout my life comprises my most recent work. Starting with a group of torn and fragmented photographs taken circa 1900 at the height of the European immigrations, I embarked on my own journey painting the stiff and awkward poses of my Swedish great-grandparents. From these paintings emerged "little blue men" or what may be ancestral spirits, wearing white gloves and floating through some of the compositions. Although I started with figures from the past, some scenes include characters and family members in more contemporary social settings. These oil paintings tell about looking to the past to better understand the present. In painting my ancestors I unraveled some family myths and discovered some universal truths.
Artist's Statement: Landscapes and Buildings (view images) These works focus on regional landscapes with towns and buildings of historical value. This focus reflects a long-standing interest in combining various architectural shapes within landscapes. The buildings I depict are not only staged visually with color and line, they are altered by time, memory, and human absence. They are still and quiet, reflecting not just the place, but the unspoken sense of who may now, or may have once, lived there. Many of the buildings featured in my recent work are houses. A house can be a symbol of family, social mores, or even oneself. I paint houses because of the myriad subjective possibilities and the endless visual interpretations. I choose houses and buildings that appeal to me either because of their setting, historical value, or because they are now abandoned and were once central to the communities that created them.
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Teaching Credential, California State University, Hayward, 1990 B.A., Studio Art, California State University, Hayward, 1984 California College of Arts and Crafts, 1980-1981 |
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Commissioner, El Cerrito Arts and Culture Commission, 2003 - present Chair, El Cerrito Arts and Culture Commission, 2004-2005 Nordic 5 Arts, Berkeley, CA member since 2004 - present Pro
Arts,
550 Second Street, Oakland, CA (member since 1997) Northwest Pastel Society, Kirkland, Washington |
Gallery
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