In my paintings I explore the mystery of everyday life. Influenced by contemporary Latin American art and literature, I work in a style I call, "domestic magic-realism". I often paint scenes that are transformed by light and shadow, or some intrusion of life outside the frame of the painting.

The framing devices I use in my studio paintings are carried over from my public work.

I, like many other public artists, have developed a design process, and created structures, that can depict complex narratives. We often use multiple frames to tell the many-facetted stories found in community histories. The collage-like format also grows out of the process of making mosaics, where whole mosaic works are built from individual tiles pieces, mosaic fragments, and modular tile designs. The parts come together to create a newly imagined whole.

"Watermarks" copyright 1998 Olivia Gude, Keila Songhay-Smith, Cynthia Weiss, Mirtes Zwierzynski
mosiac benches in Gateway Park, Chicago



detail of "Watermarks":



"Chic-Chac" mosaic Rudy Lozano Library copyright 1989 Cynthia Weiss and Hector Duarte:



detail "Chic Chac" mosaic Rudy Lozano Library copyright 1989 Cynthia Weiss and Hector Duarte:



"The View From Here" mixed media on canvas copyright 1998:



"Night of Magic" acrylic on canvas copyright 1996 Cynthia Weiss:

Artist Biography

Cynthia Weiss is a painter, public artist and artist-educator. She has a MFA in Painting from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is a member
of the Chicago Public Art Group. She has exhibited her paintings in many Chicago galleries, and has created large-scale public art throughout the
city for the past 20 years.

Her permanent mosaic installations can be seen at the Chicago Children's Museum, Chicago Place, Rudy Lozano Public Library, Kohler Design
Center, Fresno Farmer's Market, numerous Chicago Public Schools, and Gateway Park in Navy Pier, where she worked in collaboration with fellow
Chicago Public Art Group artists.

She works as an artist-educator for the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, helping teachers to integrate the arts in their classroom practice, and
curating exhibits of student work.

Cynthia received a Chicago Artists International Program award to visit artists' studios, mosaic workshops and glass factories in Venice, Ravenna &
Spilimbergo, Italy. She has lived in Mexico and Spain and is fluent in Spanish.