Cortese’s WORK IS INFORMED BY THE BEAUTY AND NATURE THAT SURROUNDS her.

Abstract in nature, Cortese's work is influenced by the light, space, and silence found in a bucolic seaside fishing village at the east end of Long Island, 100 miles from Manhattan called Montauk, which she lovingly calls home.

Although Cortese was born in the Bronx, she found the salty aired hamlet a few months later when her grandfather bought a summer home in 1938 across the street from the Atlantic Ocean. Her parents followed, and Cortese's passion for the East End was born.

She uses several mediums to express her abstractions. Oil on canvas is her primary, which she uses to express intense color compositions of geometric abstractions and impressionistic landscapes.

Encaustic, a wax-based paint (composed of beeswax, resin, and pigment), is a word derived from the Greek word "enkaustikos", which means "to burn in" is worked on Birchwood.

Cold wax, composed mainly of beeswax, with a small amount of solvent, is used to soften and aid drying time. Unlike Encaustic, it requires no heat to use it. She sometimes applies paint and cold wax, using traditional brushes and palette knives, brayers, and squeegees to push-pull and roll the paint and wax. The ability to scrape using various tools creates some beautiful surprises.

With an eye to effect without indication, she seeks to instill references that invoke deeply felt emotions yet are fairly inscrutable. Colors and shapes take center stage as allusions to experience rather than objects of distinct admiration.

Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Perle Fine, all fellow women Abstract Artists who have lived on the East End, have impelled those themes for Cortese. The more time one spends with a work of their art, the more layers of revelation come uncovered. She hopes to create art with that same depth of appreciation.

Cortese is an active community member and is generous with her time and work. She has donated her work to local charitable organizations throughout the east end, such as fundraising for the Montauk Skate Park, Rell Sun, and the Montauk Playhouse, where she is on the Board of Directors.