Education and Biography
Born in Antibes, France, Yvette excelled in natural sciences, languages, literature and philosophy. She graduated from a French college preparatory school with a Baccalaureate Degree in the Humanities. After one year at the University of Strasbourg, France, Yvette was accepted as a foreign exchange student to the United States. At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, she earned a Master’s Degree in German Studies. While supporting herself as a Teaching Assistant and working in the library, she was recognized by an Excellence in Teaching Award.
After her studies, Yvette held a lectureship teaching both French and German at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. She also taught at the Chapin School in New York before moving to the Boston area. She taught at the Winsor School and became Department Head of Modern Languages, a position she held for many years. In 2000 she became an American citizen. Yvette lives in Boston with her husband Ron Agel.
Surrounded by the enthusiasm her parents shared for horticulture, music and literature, Yvette began to develop her own artistic language; she kept many drawing journals filled with vivid colors, pressed flowers, bright collages and sketches of what she was studying at the time. Her grandfather’s devotion to country life and deep reverence of nature further instilled in her the beginning of what was to become a lifelong engagement with the natural world. Art became an intimate part of her life. Over the years, Yvette has pursued photography, art history, ceramics, poetry and painting with both an insatiable curiosity and passionate drive. She has taken many art classes, and still keeps engaged with a wider world of art by studying regularly at the Museum of Fine Art and painting with a number of mentoring masters. In addition, she finds support as a member of several dynamic art associations including the juried Cambridge Art Association.
An innovative artist, Yvette likes to experiment and works in diverse media. Her uncompromising commitment to her art is evident; she decided to overcome her deep fear of horses, took up horseback riding so that she could experience their power and grace in order to paint them with greater feeling. By suggesting drama as well as some mysterious ambiguity, Yvette’s canvasses beckon us to a poetic journey through still lifes and landscapes filled with dynamic sensuality and assertive optimism. Her lush, vibrant palettes and imagery, her bold brushstrokes, her textured surfaces keep us company in what are at times solitary, expansive places meant to evoke our own personal response to the often insular yet turbulent world around us.
Yvette’s work has been exhibited regularly in the Boston area. For further detail please go to “Events and Exhibits”. She publishes a monthly “Art Blog” on her web site. Yvette received several awards including first place in oil painting at the Boston City Hall Art Exhibit in 2009. An advocate for public television and the arts, Yvette has been participating regularly in the Rhode Island PBS auctions and the WGBH Fine Art Auction in Boston. Several of her poems have been published in Dasoku, a journal of arts and letters from the Boston based Kaji Aso Studio. She is represented by the St. George Gallery at 162 Boylston St. in Boston.