May invites a closer look at women who create with intention and authority. On the North Shore, three artists are doing just that, each shaping distinct visual languages grounded in material, memory and self-definition.
Karen Ross works in molten wax, building luminous surfaces that resist control. Erin Kaya constructs layered compositions where geometry gives way to emotion. Patricia M. Dolan turns to the Aegean, translating water, memory and movement into expansive abstraction.
Their practices diverge, but the throughline is clear. Each artist creates on her own terms.
Karen Ross: Luminous Layers
Karen Ross paints in a medium that resists certainty.
Working in encaustic, the Deerfield-based mixed-media artist fuses beeswax, resin and pigment into layered surfaces that are built, carved and reworked over time. Her paintings hold a quiet luminosity, light caught beneath the surface and shifting as the viewer moves.
“I want viewers to experience the depth, the texture, the luminosity,” Ross says. “And to have their own personal conversation with the work.”
In “I Saw the Writing on the Wall,” language emerges and dissolves across the canvas. Soft, diffused letterforms sit beneath gestural marks, fragments of text obscured by veils of color, line and texture. The composition feels both deliberate and disrupted, as if meaning is present but just out of reach.
A second work, “Pinky Swear,” moves in a different direction. Expansive and atmospheric, the surface is punctuated by bursts of fluorescent pink, yellow and turquoise that seem to bloom from within the wax.
Ross approaches the process with a willingness to relinquish control, a perspective shaped in part by her background in psychotherapy.
“The perfection of the work is in its imperfection,” she says. “Sometimes the wax is in charge, and I follow where it takes me.”
That tension between intention and surrender defines the work. Layers are revealed, then concealed. Marks are preserved or erased. What begins as structure gives way to something more intuitive.
“There is so much to take in,” she says. “The eye moves around the painting and finds something new each time.”
Her paintings do not resolve immediately. They unfold, asking the viewer to slow down, look again and sit with what is not fully defined. In that space, texture becomes language, and uncertainty becomes part of the experience itself.
Erin Kaya: Structured Instinct
Erin Kaya builds her paintings from structure, then lets them unravel.
Working at scales of roughly four by five feet, the North Shore abstract artist constructs dense, grid-like compositions layered with acrylic, spray paint and charcoal. Lines intersect. Color accumulates. What begins as order gives way to something more instinctive, more alive.
“Lines and squares are calming for me,” Kaya says. “It helps me relax and let my mind wander.”
That tension between control and release defines her work. In Sky Full of Stars, a loose white lattice hovers over a dense field of color, where jewel-toned blocks gather, fracture and disperse. The composition holds its structure, but only just.
Up close, the structure dissolves. Layers compete. Edges blur. What reads as symmetry from a distance reveals itself as something far more dynamic.
“The more you look, the more you see,” she says. “There is real depth that comes from the inner soul of the painting.”
Her recent “Egyptian Goddess” series marks a moment of acceleration. The shift is not technical, but personal.
“As artists age, our life experiences and confidence grow,” she says. “What’s inside me is starting to explode on the canvas.”
The work reflects that expansion. Gold emerges against saturated, bohemian color. Charcoal lines cut through softer forms. Materials that resist one another are brought into cohesion.
The response has been immediate. Designers, galleries and collectors have taken notice.
“I think people are connecting because I’m sharing more of myself,” she says.
Egypt, for Kaya, is less a destination than a symbol, a convergence of history, mysticism and creative force.
“It’s the temples, the gods, the unknown,” she says. “It’s everything coming together.”
That sense of convergence is present in the work. Structure remains, but it no longer contains her. It supports something larger, a practice evolving in real time and expanding beyond its own framework.
Patricia M. Dolan: Pelagos
Patricia M. Dolan paints at a scale that invites immersion.
Often spanning five to six feet, her canvases are not meant to be glanced at, but entered. The Winnetka-based artist, a first-generation American who spent formative time along the Aegean coast, returns to water as both memory and method, translating its rhythm into expansive, atmospheric abstraction.
Her current collection, “Pistevo (I Believe),” unfolds as a more introspective chapter within her ongoing “Pelagos” series, a body of work rooted in inquiry, presence and the emotional weight of lived experience.
In “Ypóschesi (Promise),” the composition opens into a luminous field of soft whites and diffused gray, grounded yet unsettled. Above it, gestural strokes of teal and sea-green move with a restless energy, as if something is surfacing or just beginning to take form. At 60 by 72 inches, the painting holds a physical presence that mirrors its emotional one, expansive yet quietly restrained.
A second work, “Fysika (Naturally),” shifts the experience into something more elemental. Spanning 60 by 96 inches, the canvas opens into a luminous field of soft neutrals, interrupted by bursts of color and movement. There is no fixed horizon, only atmosphere, where land, light and memory converge.
“It is more than water,” Dolan says. “It is a space of inquiry.”
She paints instinctively, allowing mark-making and movement to guide the work as it develops. The result is not representation, but translation, an attempt to capture something felt rather than seen.
“The sea embodies a fusion of cultures and experiences that have shaped me,” says the Winnetka-based artist.
That duality, between control and surrender, clarity and ambiguity, runs throughout “Pistevo.” Her paintings do not resolve quickly. They unfold over time, asking the viewer to slow down and stay present.
“Beyond color and texture, the work speaks to existence,” she says. “It offers a space to pause, listen and be vulnerable.”
In Dolan’s hands, the sea becomes more than a subject. It becomes a framework for understanding, a reflection of the shifting, often unseen currents that shape identity, memory and self.
See the Work
Erin Kaya | artbyerinkaya.com
Vivid Art Gallery, Winnetka (May 1–30); Park Sheridan, Highland Park; Bean Bar, Northbrook
Karen Ross | karenrossart.com
The Gallery, Lake Forest (through June 1); River Bank Lofts, Chicago (through May 7); Park Sheridan, Highland Park
Patricia M. Dolan | patriciamdolan.com
Gallery 1871, Chicago; Vivid Art Gallery, Winnetka
Private studio viewings by appointment for all artists