Artist Statement
Sounds as Nostalgia
My series, Illustrating Sounds as Nostalgia, aims to create a feeling of nostalgia. There are many sounds that I remember from my childhood and with them I can recall my most pleasant memories. I think that sounds can play a large role in childhood development. I believe it is helpful and important to return to these sounds in adulthood to reconnect with your childhood sense of peace.
This illustrated series of four traditional paintings focuses on my child figure interacting with the sounds that are the most prevalent in my memories: windchimes, Mourning Doves, the accordion, and the toll of an old clock. I use scale as a technique in my paintings to convey a feeling of being comforted by these sounds. In each painting, the objects of the sounds are painted much larger in scale compared to the child figure. To add an experiential dimension to this work, the audio of each sound is available for the audience to interact with through scanning a QR code. The paintings were created using acrylic paint on canvas with the intention to suggest that these scenes took place in the past.
This topic is important to me because I believe that in order to live your life in the present, you need to reconnect with your past, and understand that your memories have formed who you are today. I chose my happiest memories because I want to reconnect with a child-like sense of peace and simple joys. I find that to this day, the sounds illustrated here, always give me a moment of calm whenever I hear them. I want my audience to experience this same feeling of calm and joyful serenity when they view and interact with my series.