anxious circles - despondent spheres

anxious circles - despondent spheres 
new work

November 3,  2017 - January 10, 2018 

First Friday Art Walk
Friday, January 5, 2018
5:30 pm - 8:00 pm 

First Friday Art Walk
Friday, December 1, 2017
5:30 pm - 8:00 pm 

First Friday Art Walk
​Friday, November 3, 2017 
Guided tour and talk at 6 pm 
Hosted Reception
5:30 pm - 8:00 pm

gilt+gossamer
873 Willamette Street
Eugene, Oregon 97401 

lanearts.org/first-friday-artwalk

This newest body of work, anxious circles-despondent spheres, 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, loss, grief 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.
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There is play in this work. There are memories. Memories hold, contain people, events, just as circles hold and contain. There is loss in this work. There is sadness and there is joy. Fried Eggs with a side of grief, is about the comfort food of my grandmother's kitchen table. Most of these works represent something of my past, the diptych, Saturday Mornings, are about, just that, Saturday mornings, watching cartoons.

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 recently 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.