The Work

“Her artwork is far reaching – drawing inspiration from her past, from the immediate present and from the future.  Her ability to capture curiosity and beauty is instinctive and always emotional – even if it is the midst of calm.”  John Heintzman, Artist, Curator, Educator

Past Chicago and Lake Michigan. Full moons rise overhead, waves crash, reflections silently bob on the great body of water.  Gravel roads, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and others lead her to the landscape and deeper thoughts. She hears the corn grow and inhales the fragrance of blossoms. Willows weep, clouds build and lightening cracks in laughter. Sirens scream – tornado, fire, S.O.S.!  She knows fear. Life fills her mind with bigger questions.

Present Nature, people, light, line, form and color, or their absence are captured as reality or an essence. “We can’t always see things, but we can think them, intuit and respond. We can make things happen and change. And we do.”

Future Unfolding theories and scientific research dealing with light, time, space and dimensions provides new inspiration. “The Face of Women,” a collaborative project she started in late 2019, is on hold due to the pandemic; It will resume in 2021.  “Signature Drawings,” commissioned pieces based on a person’s cursive signature, continue to delight patrons. The S.O.S. series is endless.

About

Duffy Armstrong Farrell has decades of experience in the visual arts. Her BFA studies focused on photography and printmaking. As an experienced museum educator and gallery director, she is an artist devoted to the support of other artists and to the development of art patrons. She has been recognized for her leadership in the arts and has served as a juror, curator, and consultant on many community projects and fundraising efforts. She served as a development director at her alma mater, Bradley University, for ten years mainly in support of the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts.  She was tapped to work with the founders of the Sculpture Walk Peoria as a juror and to develop the docent program for guided public tours. She has served as a consultant to the Prairie Center of the Arts, the Community Foundation of Central Illinois Art Grants committee, the Illinois Women Artists Database and more. For ten years she served as a board member and on the Executive Committee of Arts Alliance Illinois, a statewide organization that advocates for and develops policies to support artists and arts organizations. She has a studio at home and at the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria in Illinois. You will find her work at Exhibit A Gallery in Peoria Heights and at the Contemporary Art Center. She is listed as Mary or Duffy Armstrong and Mary or Duffy Farrell in the Illinois Women Artists Database and elsewhere. Duffy is from the Chicago area and currently lives in central Illinois with her husband, Jim.

To learn more, contact:

Duffy Armstrong Farrell
c. 309.472.4286

art@duffyarmstrong.com