Tracy Burtz studied with some of the greats in New York and Paris, but she found her personal "voice" and style only after years of intense exploration. Tracy is a figurative painter whose still-lifes and paintings of women explore intimate moments of everyday life and the emotions those moments evoke. They project a variety of patterns and moods in often subtle but radiant palettes. The paintings reflect the harmony and tension created by the interplay of images on the flat surface. "In making a painting, the abstract elements are very important to me,” says Burtz. “The composition, color, light, space, brushstroke, and paint quality are vital to the whole.”