On October 10th, 2024 the vernissage for my first solo exhibition "Finding My Voice", took place at the Art House Cafe. The staff responsible for the gallery aspect of the Art House Café, were kind, supportive and supportive, making my first solo exhibit a memorable experience. Admittedly I was very nervous about displaying my art for all to see, especially since my art touches on such personal topics like mental health, trauma and healing. I feel thankful that I completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts, which prepared me for how to curate my art, the skills and knowledge to setup my paintings, and how to hang paintings. The Art House Café Gallery crew sent me a digital pamphlet with all the necessary information regarding what I needed for the setup, which helped me be prepared for my installation day.
I was on cloud nine, it didn’t matter that only a few people made it to the vernissage, because the people that did, made my day. Many people sitting and chilling at the café, kindly came over to look at my art. It allowed me to approach them, introduce myself and talk about my art and answer their questions. I felt so alive sharing my art with others, and watching people scan my QR code to look up the Symbol Index I created, through research and the help of Meta AI. Meta AI has been a helpful resource to combine various sources and generate themes that each symbol can signify. Eventually I plan to add images for each symbol, but that is another project for another time.
My art has always been an expression of my emotions, feelings, thoughts and a reflection of the rich inner workings for my next collection of works. The collection “Finding my Voice” is an ongoing collection with 3 more paintings that were not ready on time for the 10 pieces c hanging at the Art House Café until the end of October 2024. I am currently working on “The Wayward Witch”, “The Kintsugi Healer”, and “The Paladin Defender”. Each of these pieces are part of my ongoing healing journey and are symbolic representations or self-portraits of various aspect of my healing journey. “The Wayward Witch” represents the idea of a wanderer, living in solitude, self-isolating in fear of not being accepted, however she is also content as she prepares potions and cures. “The Kintsugi Healer” is a representation of finding serenity and the practice of maintaining one’s peace of mind, no matter what crisis or chaos surrounds us. “The Paladin Defender” is my Joan of Arc, my fearless voice defending my peace and that inner confidence we all have or learn to build up again after it falls.
These incomplete paintings will be hopefully completed by 2025, in between my exploration of layers, shapes and patterns. I wanted to dive deeper into the pattern and layer work of Klimt, and develop work that touches on natural patterns, shapes with the square patchwork of quilts. Another current exploration is based on a painting I completed in 2007 in my Fine Art program. This collection “The Seven Fs of Survival” will be distorted figurines, that are expressionist self-portrait exploring the 7 survival states: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, Fright, Flag, and Faint. I read an article about the seven survival states, that inspired me to create various paintings on each state.
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