Margaret Maine
France
My paintings are inspired by literature and poetry. I take images from my life and frame them with words from my favorite authors and poets. This impulse began when as a student studying abroad in Florence Italy, I became interested in ways artists have built images around themes explored in myth, poetry, and literature while simultaneously adding shades of their own interpretation. After moving to Paris in 2014, I began studying at an atelier for figurative art where I’ve had the opportunity to work from life and from paintings and sculpture at the Louvre. Where poets and writers use words, the painter uses light and space to describe the poetry of a moment. By painting the fall of light in my tiny apartment, I try to illuminate a universe of potential narrative and meaning. I began this current series before the pandemic, but the themes of interior, exterior, self-reflection and presentation seem even more relevant now that I’ve been confined to painting in a 44m2 apartment for the last six months. The series explores what it is to look at and imagine ourselves from the exterior. It’s about the spaces we create to inhabit and the ways those spaces both reflect us and also create an image of us in return.
* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 15th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.
