Most everyone got up on the wooden floor and danced. They danced all kinds of steps and just enjoyed themselves!

At present I use oil sticks and oil paints to portray my subjects. I enjoy the vibrant colors and easy directness of these mediums, and the way I can use tools and even fingers to articulate the surfaces. Heavy texture has always fascinated me. I like to dig in and really develop and shape my surfaces. In the past I used dirt and mud, materials that connect me physically to the earth.

Travel has been an important influence. I have visited the statues of Easter Island, mud houses and mosques of Mali, and lived along the Sepik River in Papua, New Guinea. I love the spirit of these people and the simplicity of their lives. (This is all disappearing rapidly). Experiencing the art and people of these places has helped me formulate a more spiritually direct or primal style.

Since 1990, I have played the shakuhachi, a traditional bamboo flute from Japan, as a form of meditation as well as music making. Meditation is a spur to creativity. By looking inward I've helped still and nourish my spirit; by nourishing my spirit I have returned to nature and fostered a sense of compassion. Sometimes I question the activity of making art, but really for me there is no choice.

Bette Alexander lives and works in Manhattan, and also maintains a home/studio in rural upstate New York near Delhi. She has two children and two grandchildren. She has been painting since age 16, when she saw El Greco's "View of Toledo," and realized that painting was her life's work.

My themes over the years have been women's issues, the earth, the idea of ancient figures and rituals, Jewish motifs, and also loneliness and isolation, and the things that are disappearing or are now gone, and the humanity of it all, what's all around me.

I have depicted wooden synagogues and denizens of rural Eastern Europe, mostly Poland. This life is gone, the synagogues destroyed. I work from photographs and have done considerable architectural research in libraries. However, this research is only a starting point and I consider the pieces to be imaginary landscapes. I use bright, bold colors for these works, often yellow or red.

For the past few years I have also been fascinated by a certain type of woman that I see in stores like Woolworth's, now long shuttered, and other chain retailers. These women are isolated and denigrated by our culture but are lively and beautiful if you take a moment to look.

Other figurative works like "Janna and Me," based on my own daughter and grandchild, reflect my search for greater personal meaning and ancestral connections.

Recently I have been painting people dancing. This series was inspired by a dance/beer hall, called Rainbow Gardens, not too far from my summer studio in rural upstate New York. I used to go dancing there and loved it. Every type of person went. Some with entire families, others with friends.