Description of Work

It's About Us - 2021 - Acrylic Paint, Chalk Pastel, Embroidery, and Raw Canvas - Not For Sale

Artist's Statement

Making is a necessity for me. The painting process feels like a spill into a journal or a poem in a language that only I know. Every painting is part of me and my story. I feel necessity is what drives me to make everything I do. If I did not have something I needed to say, then I would not say it. Painting is my way to communicate the things that I have no other way of communicating efficiently. I feel I am laying my soul bare.

These current works are passionately made using acrylic paint first and a mixture of high key and low-key colors for my palette. This creates a base that I then go into with a wash of highly watered-down acrylic. This stains the unprimed canvas, while also causing the heavy body paint underneath to drip and streak down giving a softened look. While the canvas is still wet, I go in with a chalk pastel to accentuate some edge lines and add more color. This causes a separation between the foreground and background. Adding stitching after all of this is complete and the piece is dry has become the most important part to me. It gives me a sense of a final gesture. That gesture is caring and slow, unlike the faster beginning steps.

I think of my work as process-based, even though my pieces do not take that long to produce, and the process is not necessarily evident. When working I do not think of the final product or worry about what it looks like. I try to allow myself to proceed without judgment and with freedom. Maybe this freedom comes out in them and you can see the process of someone freeing themselves just for a moment.

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