Merge Solo Exhibition

Merge:
the continuation and combination of anxious circles

September 28, 2018 - January 31, 2019

First Friday Art Walk 
November 2, 2018 
5:30 pm - 8 pm 

Capitello
Eugene, Oregon

This newest exhibition, Merge, is the combination and continuation of my anxious circles-despondent spheres series. The work is about the process of creating that relieves and reveals stress and anxiety. The paintings transform everyday melancholy, strife, and anxiousness into artwork that takes away burdens. For this work, I relied on memories, grief, social injustices and even joy.

During graduate school I was drawing circles to lessen stress. These circles brought me relief. The circles relieved my anxiety of all the stresses that graduate school encompasses. I allowed myself to draw circles and spheres in my sketchbook and began focusing on composition, line and color. I wanted the drawings to mean more than a quick sketch or silly doodle.

After graduating and earning my MFA in Visual Studies, I decided to begin to focus on circles and spheres and create work around this concept. I reviewed my older work and found circles in nearly all my drawing and paintings. For some reason, circles were important to me, I wanted to understand the motivation of creating circles and what intent I could add. I researched the symbolic meaning of circles and how circles and spheres are used to add meaning to various writings, paintings and poetry. The circle represents many concepts from completeness, to wholeness, to Holiness. Circles have meaning: Circle of Life. Come Full Circle. The Wheel. The Planets. The Curve. The Hoop. The Ring. The Halo.

There is play in this work. There are memories. Memories hold, contain people and events. Circles hold and contain. There is loss in this work. There is sadness and there is joy. The piece, Pan Dulce and roses, is about the sweetness that life holds. There is no worry in this piece, only goodness of memories. There is also sadness is this work, the piece, forgotten, is the fear of not belonging. The sadness, loneliness and worry of this work is also felt by the palette. The muted colors bring worry, while the bright colors represent the contrast of joy in life.

This body of work also represents surrendering daily, to the reality that God is bigger than this world. The fear that dwells on this planet, and especially now, during these personally challenging political times, do not need to cause me worry. I may be called to action. I may be called to step up visually and verbally to confront injustices of this world, but I do not need to fear.

Gustav Klimt, Rick Bartow, and Sonia Delaunay were a major influence for this body of work. I have been inspired by seeing their work in person, bringing with me this idea of the importance of making work. Each of these artists where highly prolific and were constantly experimenting with materials, concepts, and design principles.

M. V. Moran earned her MFA in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. Moran has a BFA in Painting from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. She currently works in Eugene, Oregon.

Epcot or Working for the Mouse
acrylic on canvas
36"x48"
2017
$895
Please contact the artist if you are interested in this work - 
mvmoran.artist@gmail.com