For Harry Paul Ally, painting is a primal impulse. It serves as a visual record of the mind, body, and human spirit. There is an urgency to create and destroy. Perhaps it is out of sheer frustration that he works, or maybe it is to satisfy a need to violate or contradict. The exact reason remains unclear, but Ally feels compelled to communicate this emotion. Harry Paul Ally utilizes a wide variety of materials – dry pigments, acrylics, tar, fabrics, oils, bonding agents, and different clays dug from the Georgia soil – “From these materials the figurative images are unearthed,” Ally states. Harry and his wife Suzanne, an outstanding artist in her own right, recently moved back to the States after living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. They currently live in Valdosta, Georgia where they have adjoining studios.Both artists feel that the studio is where art is most alive, where pieces are in constant states of flux, and that works of art should remain "actively unfinished", a gestalt philosophy that encourages completion through mental perception.Harry and Suzanne have worked closely over the years, influencing the work of one another, and often working in collaboration.Retired after more than 30 years as a professor of drawing and painting, Harry Ally holds the title of Professor Emeritus at Valdosta State University in Georgia. The artist has received numerous awards for his work while compiling an extensive exhibition record including works shown at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth. He has been represented by the Lowe Gallery in Atlanta and Santa Monica, the Soren Christensen in New Orleans, the Stricoff Fine Arts in NYC, and the Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas, among others, and is currently exhibiting at Mason Fine Art in Atlanta.