Linda Chappel

Biography
Linda Chappel’s formal studies in art began at the University of Madison, Wisconsin where she was fortunate to study in the sculpture department with Dan Reitz, George Cramer and Truman Lowe. She graduated from Madison with a bachelor degree in the Fine Arts in 1986. After graduation she worked in Santa Fe and Seattle and showed in a number of galleries, including the OK Hotel and FLN in Seattle. In 1992 Linda decided to further her studies and came to the University of Arizona at Tucson for a Graduate degree in Art History and was awarded a Master’s Degree in Art History, specializing in Mexican Art History. She is currently a full-time instructor at Tohono O’odham Community College and continues creating paintings and sculptures in her Tucson studio.
Statement
My artwork focuses on landscape, wildlife and the myths that humans form to mediate our interaction with nature. Through both sculpture and painting I explore how human’s relationship with nature shift sand changes. In my current work, I approach how animals travel between this world and the next, how they occupy a space in both our present time and in a realm beyond the one that we as humans are aware of. They, like us, are currently faced with a transition through environmental change. The bear, the raven and the hare have all occupied a place in human myth because they represent the ability to travel between these realms.