Bartleson’s canvases are said to be “records of the meditative act of painting, meditations for the viewer to contemplate and engage.”

For the Artist, creating art is a means to express emotion – to gather the chaos in the world and channel it into a tranquil work that challenges (commands) the viewer to be patient and attentive. The work is intended to influence the viewer’s frame of mind – the soothing aspect of the work then becomes contagious. She uses a reductive vocabulary of form and color to create work that infused with light. The nuanced surfaces of her paintings are at once intense and calming, moving and still. The paintings offer the viewer a space to shed the soot of their surrounding and experience a realm of purity.