Lauren Reynolds
Region: Pacific Coast
In paintings that disrupt time and space, my work investigates trauma’s impact on memory and its effect on the psyche. Using the building blocks of my own experiences, I construct a new narrative in which I examine my relationships to myself, my memories, and my loved ones. Through motifs of missing limbs and abstracted spaces, forgotten dreams and confused identities find new life. In fractured constructions, objects and bodies fight to tell a truthful story, longing to be real, but their contradictions shatter the scene and reveal its imaginative origins. Like a tableau vivant, the sets are still and silent, objects used as props, characters perfectly posed, lighting implausible, with colors that are often assaulting to the eyes. The barrenness and absurdity of the paintings leaves room for projection, creating an uncomfortable confrontation of one’s own vulnerability, taking the deeply personal and creating something, at the same time, relatable. My work is first and foremost my own healing project, but through this excavation of my most vulnerable moments, I offer myself to you.