“But there’s a world beyond what we can see and touch, and that world lives by its own laws. What may be impossible in this very ordinary world is very possible there, and sometimes the boundaries between the two disappear, and then who can say what is possible and impossible.”                         —Author David Eddings

I know for certain that life is always changing . . . but some things linger. A curiosity about the influence of memory and the transition of generations arose from the juxtaposition of simultaneously raising children and caring for my mother during her battle with cancer. My early paintings were rooted in black and white photos found in the family album, antique stores and thrift shops. The fascination with things that linger in our memory has expanded to explore objects and events past with an eye towards our collective future. A leaning towards abstraction has broadened my craft in both technique and media. These days, I find myself interested more in the idea of the thing, rather than the physicality of the thing itself. My images give the viewer a nudge, but it is for them to create the narrative, much like the fluidity of a memory and an imagined future. These paintings, contain a barely visible traditional underpainting covered by painterly layers and fluid ink images reflecting the use of the old as scaffolding for something new; generations past giving way to future generations. Another opportunity to create a fair, just and compassionate society out of the very broken world they will inherit.
                        —Amy Pleasant
 
 

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AMY PLEASANT is a Seattle visual artist and writer. Her paintings are known by its high chroma palette and integration of mono print and painterly technique, providing the scaffolding for the exploration of memory and generational transition. She has exhibited in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Dallas, Amsterdam and New York and her work has been featured by the Woman’s Caucus for the Arts. She is a regular Arts and Culture contributor for the Huffington Post covering social justice and arts activism.

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