Oil paint on paper (set of 2 - framed).
28x17"
These paintings explore the idea of memory and sentimentality. In a world that changes swiftly all around us there is a tendency to hold onto something of the past to keep ourselves grounded and centered. But our nostalgia is deceptive, as memories also change. They morph with different events and fade with time, until they appear more like a foggy dream rather than a lived experience. With these paintings I try to depict a memory in motion. One that is changing as the result of external forces but hasn’t yet been completely lost.
Melissa Patel is a Toronto based artist working primarily in drawing, painting, and photography. She was born and raised in Canada and is of Portuguese and Indian descent. Her multicultural background has been a key influence in her work, which she uses to explore themes of family, identity, memory, heritage, and her relationship to nature and the environment. She sees her work as a way to interpret and understand the world around her by breaking down real world elements and recapturing them through artistic media. She studied at OCAD University and has a BFA in Drawing and Painting.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
My artwork largely explores concepts of escapism through the creation of dreamscapes and collective memory. The dreamscapes I create blur the lines between realistic representation and abstraction to create imagery that is both representative of the natural physical world and our emotional sense of the world. Collective memory is the memory of a group of people, passed down from one generation to the next. My own family’s collective memories are a diluted combination of thoughts, feelings, and events and are not an accurate account of reality, but rather a sentimental, idealized version of reality, which I find to be very fascinating. I take this already distorted account of reality and further reimagine it in my own mind, creating my own fabricated memory or story represented through art. I am interested in exploring the relationship between dreaming and memory and how both these things inform my view of the world. My goal is to create artwork that is fulfilling for myself and immersive and captivating for viewers.
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