“I am not so much interested in replicating the world for the viewer as I am in articulating a more personal experience of my vision of the world. It is this vision which I want to share with the viewer that inspires me to paint.” Dorothy Jean Strauss, a native New Yorker, grew up in the Washington Heights area of New York City. After graduating from N.Y.U., she moved to Greenwich Village. Although her Masters is in literature, she has always loved painting. She studied at Pratt, N.Y.U., and Montclair. She taught English for thirty years in New York City before “retiring” and moving to what was “always my home,” Cape Cod. After painting most of her life, Dorothy has touched on many styles—expressionism and abstract expressionism being the dominant forces in her work. Whether she paints landscapes, seascapes, interiors, musicians, horses or pure abstractions, the one thing they all have in common is the depth, vibrancy, intensity and juxtaposition of color so that there is always a brilliancy even in the darkness. Although expressionism as a style can vary greatly, what does define it in part is the artist’s intent to reach the viewer on an emotional rather than an intellectual level.