About the Artist

Artist Bio and Statement

Artist Bio

Dr. Cindy Lawson (Lawson-Flynn) retired from Illinois State University Department as the Assistant Chair of Special Education 2009 after a thirty year career.  Creating art came to her by “chance” and through helping relationships and she began studying art in 2012.  Multiple teachers, mentors, and workshops have brought her to today.  She began painting in oil primarily with a group of local plein air artists who encouraged her to continue and to grow and shared their knowledge.  In 2013 she was an original founder of Inside Out: Accessible Art, an artist cooperative in Bloomington, Illinois.  She has been represented in galleries in Illinois and Florida and participated in a number of juried and non-juried group shows  Cindy is active in local art organizations in Bloomington/Normal Illinois, where she organizes Plein Air of McLeanCounty, and in the Sarasota/Venice Florida area. Cindy is wife to Mike, mother to Jake, and GiGi to Francesca and Archie and her five bonus grandchildren: Logan, Lynley, Lane, Brooks, and Cooper.

Currently Cindy paints in oils en plein air as well as in the studio from her travels and her original photography, occasionally also using acrylics or watercolor or a mix of mediums.  She also creates with paper and offers some of her handmade books through her Etsy site.

Artist Statement

At my best, my art reflects my compulsion to grow in spirit and to seek purpose, as well as to uncover and embrace my authentic self.  The more time I spend creating, and learning the skills to do so convincingly and genuinely, the closer I draw to the intention that is to be mine alone.  Practicing art with intention—to focus, to move, to entertain, to surprise, to reveal, to inspire, to enjoy both process and product as well as the relationships with God, myself, and others—reveals my Artist Nature. When I identify as A Creator I am less compelled to be a consumer. 

In the everyday, I can be prone to be bored, to question life, to shun necessary discipline and repetition.  In art, I find unending surprise and challenge. Variety in subject and medium, color, texture, light, composition and most recently perspective and mood, nourish me.  Opportunities to learn abound, and life as an artist is always changing, growing, and filled with encounters with gratitude, humility, accomplishment, and all the other human responses that engage us in growth.

I am inspired by the creativity all around me and the aspiration to contribute to it.  I am grateful for the encouragement and mentoring and examples that have allowed me to enter the world of art making.