About the Artist

Rita Noe holds a BA & MA in Art (Metalsmithing) from the University of Northern Iowa. She taught art at Keokuk (Iowa) Senior High School for 12 years, prior to working as a photojournalist. From 1972 to 1992 her medium of choice was serigraphy. She established her own graphic design studio in 1982, and in 1998 began producing digigraphs. Now retired from the graphic design business, she continues to produce digigraphs. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the Midwest, Southwest and Japan, where she has had 12 solo exhibits. She is also currently an Adjunct Faculty member of the Carl Sandburg College Art Department, teaching photography and art appreciation.

Artist's Statement

My works are all lies - just pigments of my imagination.

Pablo Picasso once said, "All art is a lie - a lie that makes you realize the truth." My images are intended to evoke a human feeling, rather than being an attempt to "re-create" reality. The only "realities" that exist in my work are paper and ink.

My work is the result of my fascination with all of Creation, from the tiniest detail to the broadest expanse. My viewpoint or "perspective" is unique because my Creator gave me an insatiable appetite for discovering the beauty that surrounds me, and the ability to express that beauty in visual form. It is what sets my soul free.

For me, a camera and computer are simply an extended list of tools I use as a means of expression. I make myriads of decisions while looking through the limited expanse of camera and lens. The release of the shutter is just the beginning of a process that takes me on a visual journey to truth. Whether the recording film or digital card is black-and-white or color, I am on a journey to express truths revealed by the wonderful shapes, tones, and lines around me. Through the use of flat shapes of color, my work takes on an abstraction of the realities I experience on a daily basis. No matter how abstract my work becomes, it is based on the actual beauty discovered around me.

My place on this Earth is not a location, but a mission - to make a spiritual connection with all the locations in which I find myself, and to share that spiritual connection with others. In the end, it is the invisible that is true reality, and viewers are encouraged to find that true reality for themselves.