Trisha Selgrath

Text: 770-971-9304

Websites: MovingAbstracts.com Interactive Fine Art

Location: Georgia, USA

The creation of a new category of art is the culmination of an extensive career in many facets of art. With my collection, MovingAbstracts™, I invite the viewer/collector to physically interact with my artwork. Each painting is comprised of many painted elements that can be moved, rotated, flipped, and rearranged within a specially made frame. The wooden hardboard elements vary in shape and size. They are painted using traditional techniques on both sides, and each one has color, texture, and brushwork variations . Finally, each piece is coated with a protective, UV resistant finish. As the creator, I get to compose and paint the art and the participants gets to rearrange it any way they like. It is truly interactive. I am excited knowing that they will co-create compositions that no one has ever seen before and they can express their creativity by exploring variations at will.

Education

1986 University of North Texas

Bachelor of Fine Arts

Major: Visual Communications • Minor: English Literature

Group Exhibitions

2019 Booth Museum, Juried Booth Artist Guild (BAG) Show, Cartersville, GA

Booth Annex- Downtown Gallery, Juried BAG Show, Cartersville, GA

Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, Juried Show, Metro Montage XIX,

Marietta, GA

Paulding Fine Art Alliance, Juried Art Show, Dallas, GA Awarded Best of Show

Rockmart Cultural Arts Center, Juried Show, Rockmart, GA

2018 Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, Juried Show, Metro Montage XVIII, Marietta, GA

Marietta Art Walk, Marietta Square

Wine Show Fall Festival, Featured Artist Kennesaw, GA

Atlanta Fine Art League, Juried Show, Kennesaw Art Center, awarded

Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, Juried Metro Montage Show, Marietta, GA

2017 Virginia Highlands Festival, Juried Arts and Crafts Show, Atlanta, GA

Candler Park Fall Fest, Juried Arts and Crafts Show, Atlanta, GA

2016 Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, Juried Metro Montage Show XVI,

Marietta, GA

2014 Atlanta Fine Art League, Juried Show, Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, GA

The Limelight Gallery, Binders, AFAL Juried Show, Atlanta, GA

Wild Hope Gallery, AFAL Show, Alpharetta, GA

Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, Juried Abstract Show,

2010-2014 Honed fine art techniques in American Realism, Oil painting on panels

2009 Strawberry Gallery, Milton, GA

2008 Sandy Springs Juried Artsapalooza, Juried Art Show, Sandy Springs, GA

2007 Trade Show, The Stationery Show, Javits Center, New York, NY

Trade Show, Atlanta Gift Show, Handmade Decor, America's Mart, Atlanta, GA

Art Space International, Juried, Atlanta, GA

Powers' Crossroads, Annual Juried Art Show, Newnan, GA

Apple Annie's Christmas Show, Juried, The Church of St. Anne, Annual Juried Art Show, Marietta, GA

Marist Holiday Tradition Arts and Craft Show, Atlanta, GA

Trade Show, Decor Expo, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA

2004 Trade Show, NAMTA National Art Materials Trade Show, Dallas, TX

Trade Show, Art Expo, Convention Center, Atlanta, GA

Apple Annie's Christmas Show, Juried, The Church of St. Anne, Annual Juried Art Show, Marietta, GA

2003 Trade Show, NAMTA National Art Materials Trade Show, Chicago , IL

Speaking Engagements

2019 Paulding Fine Art Association

2013 Roswell Fine Arts Alliance

Right out of school, I climbed through the ranks of the advertising world working in-house in advertising departments as a production artist and illustrator. I went freelance in two years to learn new graphics software for the Macintosh computer systems. I freelanced for ad agencies and in-house advertising departments all over the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. After moving to Atlanta, I rose quickly to Senior Art Director, and Creative Director of an Advertising Agency. All the while, I kept as many illustration projects as I could and continued to create fine art at home.

The higher I went professionally, the job became more conceptual and less hands=on creatively. I made the decision to leave the advertising industry vowing to paint full-time. At university, we had to choose between watercolor and oil/acrylic. I chose watercolor because I knew it would be a fast medium for illustration. After leaving advertising, I taught myself oil painting. This spawned a new career in the décor market.

My husband and I launched Imaginative Murals in 1999. Using all the printing knowledge that I had gained through advertising, I painted tromp l'oeil style murals that were printed and die-cut so the user was able to install it. Soon, we had a national distributor and international sales. We attended a variety of national trade shows around the country and also sold them on TV. Mural prints numbering many tens of thousands were sold. It started a trend replicated by most large wallcovering companies and at one time, it was the only growing sector of that industry until 2008 happened. We hung on, barely, but the market didn't recover quickly so I moved on.

Even though I was creating fine art, I still wasn't confident enough to launch it full-time. We had two young children and had been through a tough time financially surrounding the 2008 crisis as had many others so I created an inspirational collection called Redefined for Life. Over 50 concise definitions accompanied by abstract illustrations were sold as home décor, greeting cards, notecards, prints, and originals. We had many retailers and attended big trade shows including The Stationery Show at the Javits Center, NY. While the collection was popular regionally, it never gained traction nationally.

All the while, I had been painting, creating, and exploring with oil paints. My skills had evolved to a professional level in Realism and Impressionism. I worked mainly on hardboard in oils from miniature to 4x5 feet. I sold several for thousands of dollars. I was juried into many fine art shows and had even won Best of Show, but I was spread so thin between work and family that I rarely entered shows.

I loved sharing the beauty of nature by painting locations from our travels and I liked painting still lifes from my surroundings featuring the reflective qualities of glass. Unfortunately, I liked to paint the same things that a lot of other artists like to paint. . . and that's the problem. I wanted to do something that had never been done before.

Still inspired mainly by nature, I started experimenting trying abstraction techniques. Instead of imitating others' styles, I began to craft my own visual statement which led me to create landscapes using painted orbs of light and shadow. Could I create the feeling of a beautiful landscapes without detail? Yes. I called the collection Illumination and still use these techniques in elements of my newer MovingAbstracts™ collection. I also started layering watercolor paper like I had in college piercing pieces to reveal color beneath the surface. Then, I started layering wooden hardboard and making art that was fresh and different. I had to learn to use power tools. The epiphany was enabling movement. Transformation. Some pieces had hiding places that were revealed by moving panels. Others contained stacks of small, colored panels that could be selected thereby changing the visual impact of the painting.

By allowing the viewer to change the composition, I was inviting co-creating of a new work of art. The MovingAbstracts™ artworks contain many elements and since the potential combinations are infinite, the collector can rearrange compositions in a way that no one has seen before – not even me. And that's exciting.

For ten years, I experimented when I could going through several iterations. I made money printing high quality giclees for myself and other fine artists using a 6 foot Epson printer and all my skills accrued from years in advertising. In the meantime, my children grew and went off to college. My husband and I weren't getting any younger so we downsized... drastically and took off across the country in a self-converted van to live out our travel dreams.

Those new woodworking skills came in handy to build out the van. I created the design and the whole family pitched in to make it a reality. Starting in 2020, we shared our ideas on YouTube. In 2021, the adventure began as we explored the American West, parts of Canada, and even flew to Portugal for a month sharing our journey and travel tips we learned along the way. My original vision was to see beautiful places and paint them plein air. The reality was that we moved often which made it difficult to unpack all my supplies and put them away again. I did take thousands of reference photos, however, and I have painted a lot of landscapes inspired by our journey. I am merging journey photos, journal entries, videos, maps, and the fine art our travels have inspired into one website called arttravels.gallery which is under construction at this time.

Every time that we came “home” to visit our boys, I would cut strips of wood and paint them. I even took my art show tent and stacks of wood to the Southwest just to be able to work on the new collection. That didn't go well! Finally, after three and a half years, I could no longer stand not having a studio so in 2024, we bought a mini farm on a lake in middle Georgia. We had a studio built near the house, and I have been a prolific artist ever since working on my groundbreaking new category of art. Now my days are filled with sawdust and paint balanced by the endless duties of computer work, photography, and video to bring it to the public. As much as I love working away in the studio, I know that the time has come to step out into the light.

Work History

2020- Present Travel Vlogger, Online Art Instructor, Fine Artist

2010- 2020 Fine Artist, Fine Art Giclee Reproduction Provider,

Private Art Instructor

2017- 2019 Home Depot, In-house Artist and Associate

2014- 2016 Blick Art Supplies, In-house Giclee Reproduction Specialist and Associate

2004- 2010 Re-defined for Life, RTZ Company, Artist and creator of Inspirational collection of Art, Cards, and Home Decor

1997- 2008 Imaginative Murals, RTZ Company, Artist and creator of mural reproduction décor with national distribution

1994- 1996 DuCharme Communications- Creative Director, Senior Art Director, Dunwoody, GA

1986- 1994 Freelance Art Director and Illustrator, Dallas-Ft Worth, TX

1990-1993 Trish von Graf- Boutique Apparel, Arlington, TX

1987- 1989 Minyard Food Stores, Production, Art Direction, Illustration, Grapevine, TX

Online Presence

March 2026 Abstract Art Vlog, YouTube @MovingAbstracts

2020-Present Travel Vlog, YouTube @WanderWonders1221

2019 – 2021 Art Lessons, YouTube @artzXpress

Social Media

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