Painting is my passion. My painting is a ritualistic intuitive dance. The act of painting is the rhythmic movement, bursts and splashes of color, the lyrical gesture, the process of selecting the colors that are intuitively selected through the phenomenon entitled “synesthesia…literally seeing colors when I hear music. I have experienced this all my life. At first unconsciously, then once becoming aware of this gift, I have been able to channel my synesthesia in all my painting creating contemplative frenzy through very colorful exuberant interpretations that become an energetic, fascinating, gestural dance of color, texture and movement.
I am constantly dealing with my private demons, obsessions, phobias, nightmares, compulsions.
marcelle harwell pachnowski
As a visual artist for 50 years, Marcelle has resided in locales across the US, many of these settings and cultures have influenced her work. She is an advocate of the arts and has launched formal Art Councils at the county levels to promote working artist and secure artist-in-residences in public schools. Marcelle was a recipient of an artist-in-residence grant funded by the Georgia Art Council, Atlanta’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Marcelle Harwell Pachnowski holds her M.F.A. in painting and drawing from the University of Maryland and her B.A. in painting and drawing from the American University in Washington, DC. She has also been teaching throughout her career and has taught art at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, University of Maryland, Baltimore School for the Arts, Carolina Day School, Western Carolina University, Gibbes Museum School in Charleston, SC., Southeast Kentucky Community College and various art centers and privately in her studio.
She has also pioneered artist-in-residences at a women & children’s homeless shelters. Marcelle has worked as an arts educator at universities, colleges and non-profit organizations. Among the arts organizations she has led is the National Association of Women Artists where she served as President, Vice president and Governing Board Member. Through 2014, she was active in the Women’s Caucus for Art particularly with the DC and Philadelphia chapters. Today, Marcelle resides in NC where she continues to create her artwork focusing on commissioned pieces. When she is not in her home studio painting, you can find her painting to live music in musical jam sessions.
Marcelle Harwell Pachnowski 