On August the first 2003 Grace Newburger’s artist’s studio and her spiritual haven for painting was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.  Grace’s website was to be filmed the next week inside the studio where she had assembled her favorite paintings along with many new paintings.

 Recently she had brought together her favorite works, one of which had hung in the Pelican Club in New Orleans for 15 years. This painting was titled “Pelicans in Formal Balance”. It started a new direction in paintings on silk, as well as explorations in other mediums.

 Grace has always been in awe of nature, the human form and the symbolic language of past artists. This symbolism is what she has tried to express in several different mediums, including ceramics, tile murals, wall murals and four-panel screens.  Her bookshelves were filled with studies of other artists and their contributions to the History of Art.

 Grace’s greatest inspiration is the medieval visionary, Hildegard of Bingen.  This 12th century mystic was an abbess, physician, theologian, artist, writer, reformer and composer who devoted her life to creative usefulness through cosmic imagery and music. She considers these Hildegard paintings among the landmarks in her career.

  Once again Grace turns to Hildegard for strength and hopes to rise above the loss of her life’s works.