"Fertile Flesh"

"Woman Bleeding"

"Madonna Menses"

From the cold chrome of the operating room to the lush blue-green of coastal forests, Arbrador is fearless in her vision while probing for beauty and mystery. "Devoid of cliché" is one of the most cherished compliments spoken about her work.

The paintings are both nurtured and restrained by the Egg Tempera experience. The medium, egg yolk mixed with pure pigment, dictates a premeditated process, which Arbrador both embraces and resists.
Egg tempera paintings are traditionally blond (light in value), small,
realistic and stiff. Her goal, in counteracting these tendencies, is to produce work that is neither sweet nor facile.

The Byzantine gestalt, with its flat perspective, Christian patterns and metal leafing is never far away. There is a potential for sacrilege in creating works about the body in such a sacred milieu, but Arbrador
uses this spiritual energy to her advantage by suffusing a feeling of sanctity into the human body and its functions. Twenty-five years as
a Registered Nurse provides Arbrador with wellsprings of ideas and
deep knowledge of the human body. Intimacy and romance between humans and nature is inspired by Arbrador's study of native plants
and time spent living close to nature.

Arbrador has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the
U.S.A., including South Bend Regional Museum of Art (Indiana),
Woman Made Gallery (Chicago), Wenatchee Valley College Art Gallery (Washington), and the Bade Museum of the Pacific School of Religion (California). Arbrador won first place at the Anatriptic Arts Festival in 1992
(California) and at the Art and Healing exhibit at Artwest Gallery in
1997 (Wyoming).

Arbrador has taught Egg Tempera to adults at the Kala Institute of Art (Berkeley, CA) and to middle school children at the Presidio Hill School (San Francisco,CA). In 1995 she created the slide lecture, Botticelli's Forgotten Medium; Egg Tempera Past and Present , first presented at the Johnson Museum at Cornell University. In 1998 Arbrador
co-founded the Society of Tempera Painters , inspired by the original Society of Painters in Tempera (founded in 1901 in England).

Work underway includes small paintings for the yoga series
(see Gallery - Yoga and Massage ) and large paintings for the series "Ways of Dying" (see Gallery- Medical Mysteries ).

Lora Arbrador may be reached at Arbrador@yellowyolk.com or
(415) 824-7608
P.O. Box 460265
San Francisco, California 94146-0265