Carol Dallas, PSA, PSC, has a B.A. in Art from the University of Wyoming and an M.A. from the University of Colorado at Denver. She is an art teacher in Aurora Public Schools in Colorado. She works mainly in pastel.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I paint the invisible. Among us are the invisible–those whose beauty and longing are too intense to look at for more than a moment. So, we avert our gaze and turn, instead, toward the mundane and cosmetic, comfortably numbed by the insignificance of these. But once in awhile, we almost unwillingly catch the eyes of the invisible, who are the tender plants growing in dry ground, and our souls writhe and bend. We are exposed and we don’t want to be. I paint the voiceless, as one of them. I've learned how to look pretty and be quiet. I've bought products to mask my face and skin and cover my lips, and kept my tongue still. As an artist, I celebrate the meek, and their images are my voice.