MEAGAN BRAND and SALENIA SANCHEZ BFA PAINTING THESIS SHOW - APRIL19-23
Meagan Brand -- The Heritage of Home -- Statement
The Heritage of Home is my tribute to the value of simplicity and the life that emanates from
objects and landscape.
The pervasive notion of a “northern sensibility” that runs through my work is difficult to define. It's a way of viewing and understanding the world that everyone who has lived it can immediately recognize. Growing up in rural New Hampshire surrounded by the early American antiques that filled my home, I find myself drawn to these influences when painting. My connection to these objects and landscapes was both deep and formative, and I have found these images to constantly be at the forefront of my thinking. More than simple still lifes and scenes, my paintings are an expression of a way of life; a life of valuing objects and places not for what they are, but for the spirit they reveal and the history they hold.
The sensibility of these works rejects artifice in an attempt to discover the true nature of the object being painted, as well as the inner self who is experiencing it. Ultimately, these paintings are an acknowledgement that what is seemingly simple is simultaneously deep, personal, and layered with meaning.
objects and landscape.
The pervasive notion of a “northern sensibility” that runs through my work is difficult to define. It's a way of viewing and understanding the world that everyone who has lived it can immediately recognize. Growing up in rural New Hampshire surrounded by the early American antiques that filled my home, I find myself drawn to these influences when painting. My connection to these objects and landscapes was both deep and formative, and I have found these images to constantly be at the forefront of my thinking. More than simple still lifes and scenes, my paintings are an expression of a way of life; a life of valuing objects and places not for what they are, but for the spirit they reveal and the history they hold.
The sensibility of these works rejects artifice in an attempt to discover the true nature of the object being painted, as well as the inner self who is experiencing it. Ultimately, these paintings are an acknowledgement that what is seemingly simple is simultaneously deep, personal, and layered with meaning.
Artist Statment - Salenia Sanchez
I was 16 when I was uprooted from Florida and transplanted to Tennessee. I found it difficult to
ground myself in my new surroundings. I felt alienated from my peers because of our cultural differences.
From this emotionally challenging experience, I gained a deeper appreciation for
diversity. But, last year due to COVID-19 I was forced back to Tennessee, to an environment that felt like unfinished business.
From the Tennessee landscapes, I learned a deeper relationship to the natural world using different shapes, textures, and colors. This challenge of adjustment and contemplation soon seeped into my work. My palette naturally evolved to express a more emotional and passionate truth and fear. Beginning with an empty space that argues love and lies, I developed these altered landscapes of introspective and celebratory experiences. The trunk, the branches and twigs of my paintings are reflections of a fictive realm that dwells inside me. The disorganizations of these shapes found in these paintings were a confession of both my doubts and my solutions.
ground myself in my new surroundings. I felt alienated from my peers because of our cultural differences.
From this emotionally challenging experience, I gained a deeper appreciation for
diversity. But, last year due to COVID-19 I was forced back to Tennessee, to an environment that felt like unfinished business.
From the Tennessee landscapes, I learned a deeper relationship to the natural world using different shapes, textures, and colors. This challenge of adjustment and contemplation soon seeped into my work. My palette naturally evolved to express a more emotional and passionate truth and fear. Beginning with an empty space that argues love and lies, I developed these altered landscapes of introspective and celebratory experiences. The trunk, the branches and twigs of my paintings are reflections of a fictive realm that dwells inside me. The disorganizations of these shapes found in these paintings were a confession of both my doubts and my solutions.