Regina Ottman

Artist Regina Ottman's early teachers discovered she has perfect pitch and synesthesia (color-music).  While she pursued her operatic career, she also worked as a docent at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.  Ottman's experience at the Academy, particularly with a Betye Saar exhibit, led her to return to art making.

Her work has appeared in shows throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, including the annual Ellerslie Open at Trenton Museum of Art (Trenton, NJ), the Cultural Alliance of Western CT, the Regional Center for Women in the Arts (PA) and Perkins Center for the Arts Annual Juried Exhibits (Moorestown, NJ).  Her paintings, drawings, prints and encaustics hang in private collections throughout the eastern United States, in such varied spots as the Cooper Cancer Center (Camden, NJ), the office of the president of Camden County College (Blackwood, NJ), a Center for Family Services safe house (NJ), and on a community wall mural at Twisted Tatt2 in Camden (featured on Spike TV's "Tattoo Rescue.")    Ottman lives in historic Laurel Springs, NJ.  

As an artist born with perfect pitch and synesthesia, my ability to 'hear' colors is a wellspring of inspiration.  My abstract work explores various musical keys, tempi, rhythms, patterns and moods.  As I investigate these varieties of musical palettes and textures, I work with a variety of media and techniques to best express the way I see-hear.

I am inspired by the patterns, colors and textures in music and in the natural world. I am curious about the way opposites inform and balance each other: fragility and resilience, sorrow and comfort, community and singularity. I am intrigued by these tensions and how they find space on a two dimensional surface. In these relationships are endless sources of inspiration, curiosity and joy, both in my art and in everyday life.

- Regina Ottman, 2025