The Gesture of Emotion

ARTIST STATEMENT

My art practice is really my way of giving presence and attention to my own human experience. 

I find endless inspiration in my internal landscape; the experience of my emotions and how I receive and respond to them, the nuanced experience of  motherhood and the many lessons my role as a mother brings, and my experience of being in relationship with others.

It is through my art practice that I give myself the space to witness my emotional responses and judgements. My time spent painting is also my time to reflect on the messages my emotions bring. By painting my emotions, I am able to digest my experiences by expressing them on canvas. 

In this way, my art is very much a form of therapy in the way it allows me to sort through the background noise of life and connect with myself. It allows me to reflect on myself and my actions and to validate myself. My hope is that my work serves to invite the viewer to do the same.

My work is heavily inspired by the Abstract Expressionist giants of the 40’s and 50’s who led the charge bringing the movement to the global stage like Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler. I also recently studied with A’Driane Nieves, a Philadelphia-based abstract artist and founder of the Tessera Arts Collective, in early 2020. I participated in a mentorship program with A’Driane as part of the Artist/Mother Crit Group workshop series. I credit A’Driane often for being the person that helped me move beyond limiting beliefs that were holding me back from expressing myself more fully at the time. After expressing hesitation and fear around expressing the “messiness” that I truly feel, she assured me that, “Whatever you are feeling, the canvas can take it.” I was able to put a lot more trust into my art after that.

I work in multiple mediums including acrylic paint, oil pastels, graphite, wax crayons, and watercolor pencils all layered over top of one another in order to capture the nuanced layers of an emotional experience. What I have found and witnessed in painting my own emotional experiences is that it is rarely ever one emotion I am experiencing. Most often, it is a primary emotion layered with secondary emotions, memories, perceptions, and judgments that are then colored through the lens of reflection. What I hope to achieve, more than anything, is to inspire the viewer to reflect on their own responses to their emotions, and, in turn, relieve themselves of any shame they may have around their emotions by validating their experiences.

—Marcy Parks

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