title: Lampshade Halo
artist: Natalie Pivoney
materials: oil on canvas
dimensions: 40 x 52 inches
location: Batavia, Illinois, US
This painting began last summer as I was transitioning out of a studio I had been working in for three years, surrounded by other working artists. I moved to an at-home studio in a new city where I completed this work, which reflects a change in subject matter that mirrors my new social atmosphere. Away from the supportive albeit cramped setting of graduate school, I now find myself immersed in a solitary practice that has been intensified by quarantine.
Previously, I had been using my studio practice as an escapist exploration of my past experiences. I believe a comfort based on familiarity is found in the colors and lights of a shared living space, college campus, or local dive bar, with brushstrokes that emphasize the nostalgic quality of a memory trying to relive itself. The process of painting these scenes bring the past to the present and allows me to re-contextualize my history as something formative, memorable, and even charming.
"Lampshade Halo depicts a new normal in my life. I am home every day, without human interactions, and can no longer rely on social gatherings to collect imagery. I now color my own world and find comfort in my imagination."
Natalie Pivoney is a member of the Purple Window Gallery co-op where she serves on their curatorial committee. She finished her MFA degree from Northern Illinois University in 2019, where she specialized in oil painting and taught undergraduate drawing classes. She received an MA degree in studio art from Eastern Illinois University in 2016, completed an artist residency in Galesburg, IL in 2018, and has been published inStudio Visit MagazineandPIKCHUR Magazine. Pivoney works as a teaching artist at Side Street Studio Arts in Elgin, IL where she teaches painting and drawing classes to children and adults. Follow her on Instagram: @nrpart
More on Natalie Pivoney's practice
In the lifestyle of young adults, home is often a temporary place of shared rent and Goodwill furniture. My recent paintings offer intimate reflections of my environments as a college student, from moving place to place, to figuring out life. They are often based on snapshots of personal experiences where passed time has allowed me to see with new contexts, intimately recalling through oil paint the milieu of young adulthood. Visit nrpivoney.com to see more from this series of work.
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