South County Independent, 9/5/02, " Mapping out their own sense of place" by Doug Norris

   Curran's subtly rendered landscapes embrace the palette of Italy and reveal the way light changes color in seconds and degrees. Familiar scenes, seemingly drawn from the collective unconscious, are titled simply "hills one" and "hills two."  The works use bold shapes and large blocks of color, conveying a vivid sense of place without ornamental, minute detail, as if from a dream.
   A favorite work, "no entry," depicts an arched doorway, an old archetype of the Italian landscape. The archway is open and inviting. But just inside is a universal sign, the familiar circle with a bar through the center, indicating that nobody is allowed in. The painting is visually arresting, seeming incongruous and even unfair. It's a feeling that anyone who has traveled to Europe can relate to.
   Another lovely painting, "the red building," plays with perspective as the left half of the work, representing the foreground, is dominated by a single yellow building. The red building of the painting's title is actually in the background. It's obscured by its canary-colored partner, yet becomes all the more interesting and poignant by remaining somewhat hidden.
   Curran's work seduces...the viewer eventually realizes that he is the figure that completes the work.

South County Independent, 10/12/02, "Curran's art challenges the senses" by Doug Norris

   Art lives beyond walls, breaking down physical barriers. Suddenly paintings dangling in three dimensional space strike something in the subconscious, and the viewer is transported to some place between gallery and memory....That's the effect achieved by artist Pat Forni Curran, who displays two bodies of work, dividing the Hera Gallery in half to show "Playgrounds: Swings" on the right side, and "...Souvenirs of an Italian Sojourn," on the left.
   "Playgrounds: Swings" captures the universal experience of swinging in a series of moody, dreamy images. The paintings feature playful names and show changing seasons, times of day, the effect of wind and weather. The images are subtle, empty swings placed in shadow, under leaves, creating shape and movement...
   Her Italian sojourn is charged with sensory experience, the striking color of lemon skies, the buzz of conversations in doorways, the ritual of carrying water, the repeated images of horses, pear trees, plowed fields, small villages and cypress. Again I was transported, where art and conversation are paramount in daily life. The roar of Vespas, the easy chatter of languid pesto lunches and the lullaby tones of slow evening strolls hummed from Hera's gallery walls.

The Haverill Gazette, 8/7/97, "Butterfly series explores journey of the soul" by Elin Anderson

   One of American's greatest poets, Emily Dickinson, wove the butterfly's "spangled journeys" into her quest to discover wider truths with the smallest fragments of nature...hope overrides despair, as the artist takes a philosophical look at loss, finding new worlds in the abstracted landscapes she finds in the patterns on butterflies' wings.
   Each of the groupings of canvases in this show is named for a particular butterfly species. A large 26x26 inch painting presents an expressionist rendering of the butterfly, while smaller pieces highlight and expand upon details of the scale patterns.
   A distant city within a framework of evocative abstractions, a golden late-summer marsh under a lowering sky, and a pond with Monet-like water lilies are among the deeply contemplated vistas Curran shares with us...Curran conjures up Dickinson's butterfly images in paintings...
   The sheer beauty of color combinations in many of these pieces stunned me, the artist and nature deserve equal credit. I...loved one small painting in the "Cabbage White" group, where triangular patches of bright teal, separated by bands of grey-violet, swirl quietly toward a spiraling delta.
   Curran's skillful, loose interpretations combine scoring, overlay and splatter techniques...By introducing new perspectives on this much-loved motif, Curran ask others to consider embarking upon their own "spangled journeys to the peak of some perceiveless thing..."

The Boston Globe, 8/7/96, "Exhibit shows why MFA should keep school ties," by Christine Temin

Pat Curran... [are] among strong painters working in various modes of abstraction. Curran's paintings suggest landscape; she's a successor to a strain of lyricism that runs from Constable to Monet to Jennifer Bartlett. Her "Between" is a nine canvas grid whose centerpiece is itself a grid, with loosely painted rows of blue squares against a buttery, yellow ground. This reads as an emblem of civilization surrounded by canvases whose brushwork suggest watery reflections, wind-whipped wheat, crashing seas, and other natural phenomena.