Fragments of Memory

Memory is a powerful tool. It allows you to transcend time and space, returning back to specific moments within your past. However, memory can often be distorted by time, creating a hazy almost blurred effect within one’s head.

My work is centered around memory, nostalgia, and the emotions which they can evoke in relation to childhood. By utilizing the medium of oil paint, I am able to investigate this topic in a visual manner. Each of my paintings represent a small simple instant from my past, working to capture that fleeting moment in time and assemble the image before it fades. They work as mini time capsules to transport the viewer back to when life was lived in the moment. The carefree nature of childhood and the act of retrieving fragments of memory can be seen in both my subject matter and the stylistic choices I made in the application of paint, specifically within the geometric pixel-like backgrounds. By creating contrast between the more naturalistic subject and more abstract background, I hope to visually display the imagery within my mind related to how my memories appear. The square motif repeated throughout my work mirrors physical photo galleries and online collections of the past. They work to push my theme farther and comment on how digital representations as well as physical photographs have played a large part in shaping our own memories. By choosing to create the subjects of each oil painting in a monochromatic fashion utilizing only greyscale, the visual representation recalls the past and suggests an event or scenario that took place prior to now. By playing with this idea, I also explore representations of the past in more traditional ways that draw connections to older black and white photographs.

When I began this project, I conducted a search through my family's digital archives working to deconstruct past photographs. Through the discovery of my grandfathers photo gallery, I was inspired and sought to display a sense of nostalgia for a past which was before my time. This interesting interaction of family heritage adds to my overall theme of memory. The way which these photographs create a sense of false nostalgia for a time where I had not yet existed but still feel attached to is very powerful. The way in which these memories blend back and forth transitioning from my own past to my relatives creates intertwined connections that may be difficult for the standard viewer to discover but are ever more personal to me. The very invention of photography allows us to freeze a moment in time and be transported back. Current day, we have many more resources and the ability to take photographs, allowing us to document different experiences and leave traces of our lives behind. The ability we have to view images of ourselves when we were young, our parents growing up, and even our grandparent lives really gives us a greater understanding and a sense of connection to them. My work explores all of these closely knit connections and creates a visual representation of them for the viewer.

However your memories are structured within your head, they are always constantly shifting with the passage of time and are remembered differently. Capturing fragments of them through oil paint creates a physical representation of a moment, allowing you to be transported back in time and gain a greater understanding of that moment.