How Do You Monet?
Alexia Johnson
Artist Statement
My work explores the complex range of human emotion through bold portraits. I aim to capture the nuances of expression – hardship, resilience, joy – to reflect the shared experiences that connect us. Currently, I work across a mixture of messy mediums like charcoal, watercolor, and acrylic that allow for organic movement. These materials embrace the inherent vibrancy and imperfection of life. I find beauty in rawness. As a developing artist, I am still exploring my voice and pushing my creative boundaries. But the eyes looking out from my pieces, whether confrontational or vulnerable, ultimately seek to uncover our shared humanity and shared power. My goal is to forge human connections through raw emotion made tangible.
How do you Monet?
I’m drawn to this intersection between Monet’s approach and underrepresented narratives. My hope is this fusion honors his legacy while forging new creative paths – showing how we can each add our unique brushstroke to what came before us. I propose creating a vibrant mixed media portrait piece that explores legacy and perseverance through the intersection of Claude Monet’s impressionist style with diverse/POC subjects. The artwork would be 24″ x 30″ acrylic on canvas, with dimensional sunflower elements sprouting up to add texture. I aim to capture the essence of Monet’s floral still lifes merged with a contemporary subject. In terms of style, I would employ loose, thick brushstrokes and an impressionistic color palette to interpret the scene through movement and light. My goal is to bring fluidity and energy to the portrait. The subject would feature a person of color, thoughtfully painted to echo Monet’s contemplative faces. This represents an opportunity to expand the diversity of figures depicted in Monet’s signature style. The dimensional sunflowers act as a symbol of persevering and continuing to blossom, even from unexpected new soils.
simmy blue
Who I am:
I am a content hermit nestled on the edge of the village, available to the community but not immersed within it. Alone, quiet, listening for what is needed from moment to moment. I, like you, am the embodiment of my ancestor’s dreams, their layers of multicultural trauma and the wisdom of their traditional survival strategies. I attempt to maintain an eagle-eyed perspective while straddling multiple forms of marginalization belonging to communities often in conflict with one another.
What I make and the materials I use:
As a painter I paint inner landscapes–to make the unseen seen. This morning I made wreaths from wild grasses and dried rose buds to offer to someone in acute grief. This afternoon I painted symbolic images to express my story through pigments from the earth and oils from a walnut tree. Tonight I stand under a giant evergreen engaged in traditional prayer rituals. Tomorrow I tend to my garden as an endless living sculpture. I listen closely to nature, my collaboration partner, and the broader powers that created nature.
Why I make what I make:
I offer the messages and images that move through me to the world with the intention of cultivating a more balanced way of living; a way of living that trusts what is felt but not seen; a way of living that values the wisdom of nature and acknowledges that we too are made from and are a part of nature.
My survival is a testament that creating art is an antidote to self-destruction. Artists have always been conduits for truth telling and healing. Whether it is tough love truth telling or soothing affirmations of hope, art reaches places within the human psyche that other forms of truth, teaching and healing can not. Art has the capacity to make meaning from what feels meaningless and inspire transformation. Art is a historical record, offering clues for future generations to create more sustainable humane ways of living. This is why I make what I make. I hope to leave a legacy of meaningful creations about what I experienced, what I learned and how I overcame as seeds of inspiration for viewers long after my body and personality are returned to the earth.
How Do You Monet?
As a fellow plant tender I value the ways Monet worked with nature to cultivate a living work of art in his gardens. I often reflect upon his process while painting the water lilies while hearing the sounds of war so near during a time when he was in acute grief and navigating a disability as he battled failing eyesight. I ponder this while I work as an artist and I care for medicinal plants, tending to grief and my own disabilities during these troubled times. We are witnessing and/or are in a war wherein the constant battle for human rights and environmental wellbeing is ongoing. I often work with the image of the lotus or water lily to represent overcoming, rising up from the mud. A Buddhist principle that spans culture. I am particularly connected to the blue lotus, for its medicinal properties and its significance in the places where my ancestors may have dwelled. I would like to explore the concept of rising up from the mud, overcoming and carrying on with beauty making and peacekeeping during times of oppression and war in honor of the work Monet did to set this example for us. The piece I am creating uses mixed mediums of watercolor, acrylic and earth pigments. I am exploring the image of the water lily and an anthropomorphic lily to personify human resilience, a symbol of overcoming and evolving through times of strife.
To receive updates and info about pieces for sale send an email to: Simmyblue18@gmail.com
Cassandra Kuring
Artist Statement
Mover. Shaker. Maker. Constantly evolving and creating. Defining value through color and line. Visual. Familiar. Messy. Growing. Refined. Fortunate.
How do you Monet?
While Monet pushed the boundaries of his time with value and paint strokes, I propose to do something similar with the material I choose to use for this piece of art. As a lifelong creator, I am constantly experimenting with materials and techniques in how I create images. Cardboard, usually discarded as trash, will be the main material for my proposed project. For this project I will take what I’ve been experimenting with in cardboard and accessible materials to create a modernized landscape scene. It will be painted, so from far away it might look like a regular painting, but when you get up close you will see the texture and relief of the cardboard and materials used to make it, something similar to what I have been creating with my cardboard masks and puppets. . I hope for the piece to be larger, at least double the minimum size requirements, for the biggest impact. The links I have included are to pieces I have posted to my Instagram page, as I don’t have another website to store them. I have included two of my cardboard masks and one painting. While I usually focus on portraiture in my art, I am intrigued by our surroundings and am excited for the opportunity to create something specific for this event.