ARTIST STATEMENT
Girlfriends, in all their vibrancy, complexity, messiness and mystique, are one of the greatest gifts in all stages of life. The feeling of nostalgia is artfully rendered in washes of intense color and partially developed subjects depicted from found, antique photos. The play patterns of happy humans are literally echoed in the stripes and dots. Fun and leisure find the subjects in a relaxed state of mind in an abstracted time and place. Just like happiness, friendship is a hard won endeavor and no joke. When both are achieved, bliss is possible and life manageable. Watercolor, used intermittently in washes and controlled blocks, feels washed out like memories. Details are sporadically developed and abstracted throughout. Oil and acrylic paints are used in expressive, impulsive gestures, as loose as the subjects themselves in their comfortable setting. Realism is not the goal of these figure paintings. It is to encapsulate the magical, though mundane moments of comfort and joy, found in the deep relationships. These works simultaneously cherish the past, appreciate the present, and wish for the future of the artist’s own deep & lifelong relationships with her sister, cousins, and girlfriends.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Colleen Walsh (b.1982) is a full time artist, painting, sculpting, and thriving in South Chicagoland. She is an alumni of University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, in Fine Arts in Painting, and Columbia College Chicago, in Masters of Education in Art. Walsh paints in mixed media, ranging from spray to oil paint, working from found, photography. She creates lush and hue saturated narratives, from grayscale images taken by unknown photographers. Mystery subjects are imbued with life and meaning, via textured, layered and expressive paint strokes. Walsh has shown her work at many exhibits and group shows, in addition to Renegade Art Fair and The Other Art Fair. Her work can also be found in private collections around the world. Fun and leisure find an oasis in Colleen’s home and work. She brings her sense of vibrancy and focused joy into all crevices of life, whether it is busy family life or in her basement home studio. Her ceramics and paintings absorb her productivity, pulling precious time from her other commitments, from chronic hosting, avid gardening, (useless) special home improvements and household management. Good times and love are documented in found imagery, Walsh’s paintings elaborate on the existing visual narrative contained in photographs and appeal to the universal experience of the human condition. The work has a tendency to feel light hearted, if not because of the color palette then, the subjects. The matter of fun and happiness is a serious and hard won endeavor.
© Colleen Walsh