Violet Fields

(American, born 1951)

Violet Fields is an artist and a poet who is African American. Her artworks are personal reflections. They are abstracted compositions of irregular geometric shapes and lines in pale, pastel, “sandstone colors.” She uses layers of colored pencils and pastels on top of paint. Her artworks have subtle textures such as folded and creased papers and canvases. She notes, “As a person of color in this country, I share with others a tradition, if not a natural affinity, for communication with higher sources… Art that is true can only be made by those who can ‘hear.’”

Fields was born and raised in Berkeley, California. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute and her Master of Arts degree in studio art from California State University in Sacramento. She has taught art at the middle school level in Oakland, California, and is involved in arts advocacy. Fields has shown extensively in the Bay Area.