Marisa Kreinbihl

"Have I told you today that I love you?" - Digital painting, canvas print - Not For Sale

Thunder and Lightning - Digital painting, canvas print - Not for Sale

Artist's Statement

An Exploration of Memory

Before smartphones, my family reserved photography for special occasions. However, most of my formative memories happened on ordinary days, leaving them undocumented. To remedy this, I reconstructed two unphotographed memories as digital paintings that mimic the idiosyncrasies of early-2000’s Kodak prints. This approach marries the tangibility of traditional photography with the romantic ambiguity of traditional painting and the prevalence of the digital image.

Reconstructing a memory is an imperfect process; existing photographs, recent photos of surviving spaces, and pure memory contribute to the paintings’ content.  While the memories I paint are incomplete and inaccurate, they are still essential to my identity. This mirrors the psychological implications of memory; our minds constantly rewrite memories and inject new information into the past. While this erodes the accuracy of the memory, it also preserves the memory’s relevance. As I explore and process these memories in depth, I embrace their imperfections. My paintings represent this form of truth, which is one of many that make up our memories.

If you wish to purchase any of these pieces, please contact the gallery director, Jacqueline Nathan (jnathan@bgsu.edu.)