Janet Culbertson’s career path became clear to her during a canoe trip she took with her father on a river in Western Pennsylvania. The water was so polluted her father forbid her to touch it. Though only nine years old at the time, she knew she would become an environmental artist. Her inspiration is singular: an interest in the beauty and fragility of the natural world.
Her paintings incorporate mediums that are not typically found in the fine arts, including iridescent paint and glitter. In Culbertson’s work, these materials—which are traditionally associated with kitsch and craft—convey the toxic and menacing atmosphere of an endangered planet.
Culbertson’s career spans four decades, most of which has been on Shelter Island. With more than 35 one-woman shows and numerous awards, her work is in the permanent collections of museums from the Galeria-Nacional in San Jose, Costa Rica to the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Mass., and she has shown with Islip Arts Council a number of times.
