The Story of the Series, Moments

The artwork in this series of paintings titled Moments, are inspired by the moments, both small and large, that influenced my life over the past year. Not only does this collection memorialize instances in time, but also shows my growth as an artist, taking a mixed media approach to some of the artistic styles that I have engaged in during my creative journey. I grew up exclusively drawn to creating art by pencil, and didn’t discover my love for painting until I was an adult. I was too intimidated by the idea of experimenting with color to make a composition come together, but once I let loose, I found a love for it. This collection addresses the early stages in my art career where I leaned heavily into integrating collage work with abstract representational paintings as well as plays into my love for drawing. Ink drawing, specifically, was something I started to embrace as a quick sketch practice to capture my experiences when traveling and out in nature. Each mixed media piece takes on an abstract play on emotions and color palettes inspired by places where specific moments took place. When observing each painting in this series, you are getting a snapshot into aspects of my life that make me, me as well as the foundations I have built to create art that I am truly proud enough of to share with an audience such as yourself.

The Story of the Painting, Field of Water Lilies and Steel

This moment depicted in this painting, is from a combination of museum experiences at the MoMA in New York City. I had the pleasure of visiting three art museums in the city as a college graduation gift to appease the art history nerd in me. I chose two pieces of artwork to inspire this piece which are very different from each other. The vast size of these pieces may be the only thing they have in common – Claude Monet’s Water Lilies span across the majority of the walls in the room it resides and Richard Serra’s Equal is massive to say the least. Equal is described as “eight blocks of steel in the shape of sharp-edge cubes” which tower over its viewers with each cube weighing 40 tons. The juxtaposition between the inviting palette and soft brush strokes and the dark earth toned weight captured within the sculpture reflects my varying interests when it comes to art – both that I enjoy viewing and creating. I find comfort in recreating something “real” like a landscape or bouquet of flowers while I seek meaning in the less obvious. Entering a field surrounded by both whimsy and structure is what I wanted to cast upon people as they view Field of Water Lilies and Steel and for them to find their own “less obvious” meaning within it.