Artist Statement
When I start a piece, I sit with myself to understand my current mood. Living with bi-polar means my mood changes often. However, I’ve always struggled to express my mood and emotions with words. I just don’t have an understanding of how the way I’m feeling relates to words. Instead, I have a form of Synesthesia, which causes me to see colors as an expression of my emotions. Using that association from my mental state, I build a color palette around that color which I am experiencing. Then I start painting through a stream of consciousness method. In the early phases of my paintings, they are energetic, messy, and chaotic. Over time, the painting coalesces, and eventually, the composition comes together! Sometimes I find “the face” in the piece, but other times “the face” finds me. Additionally, my use of color is an expression of my queer identity, a community known for colorful celebrations of joy!
About
Gwenn lives in San Diego, California and works out of a studio there as well. They are an abstract figurative artist working in acrylic and mixed media. They are a queer, non-binary artist who lives with bipolar disorder. They hold a B.S. in Computer Science (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1998-2001) and an M.S. in Chemistry (University of California, San Diego, 2002-2004), but their passion has always been in the creative world. They have played piano and viola most of their life, and still write music occasionally. In 2021, they started pursuing their dream of becoming a fine artist, and continue to study under many teachers at Art On 30th, an art center in San Diego, California. You can find Gwenn’s work at the Ashton Gallery in San Diego, California.