My family and a consulting career filled my life for many years. Then, at the age of 50, I joined college students studying, exploring and learning at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) in Boston. I loved the environment of discovery and free flowing critique from teachers, much younger students and a few brave contemporaries. I studied and grew there for five years and to my surprise I was invited to join the Board of Directors of the School…and eventually served as Chair of that Board. From the beginning I was intrigued with “Edges.” Edges are where, with stroke of a brush, things touch and come together…shapes, objects, lines, spaces, colors, energies and of course, relationships. These intersections are where worlds of emotion, relationship and life meet. My quest became to explore the nature of those intersections and transitions. Some edges were strong impermeable barriers allowing nothing to pass through. Others were ill defined and fragile, almost invisible, barriers to nothing. Through the years, the edges evolved into wider swaths and patches of color, becoming strokes of a brush that carry the energy of life, the exuberance of living. My hope is to have my paintings be loose, open and free, relaxed and joyful using a broad spectrum of life’s palette. I strive for depth, energy and ‘a certain sophistication’ in my work that is hard to describe. But I know it when I feel it. In the early days of the pandemic, my husband and I moved to Maine. Much to our surprise, we are still here. The combination of the pandemic and the move to the north has had a significant impact on my work. Like all of us, my paintings continue to evolve, and like life, it’s not clear to me exactly where they are headed. But I continue to follow the threads, the mystery of my edges and their evolution. Cathy Bennigson cathybennigson@gmail.com 2025