Bria Marie

As a student in the CSU Fresno Art Department, I was encouraged to choose a “theme” for my work, a sum total and clearly expressed explanation of my intentions. However hard I tried to understand them, the concepts of summation and of explanation were obscure to me. I looked at what I had done, the forms and colors on the canvas, and could come up with nothing articulate to say about them. It was as if someone had told me to express myself about expressing myself. I became lost in the vacuum that the notion of summation seemed to create.

Now, I believe that it is no sign of limitation for the artist to proclaim, simply and without reservation, “I cannot explain.” Most especially when the painting itself stands before the viewer as its own explanation. The painting is the culminating statement made in that process of expression where there exists no other language to articulate the emotions, the thoughts, and the events of human experience. Viewed through this lens, a statement of intentions is stifling, especially when art itself is limitless, a door opened to endless possibilities. Isn’t this the very thing that makes art so beautiful to us?

Still, I have to concede that a move toward explanation is probably necessary for any artist, especially for one who hopes to share her work with the rest of the world. So, here is a beginner’s attempt at explanation: I believe that my ability to paint is a gift from God, one that I cannot take credit for and one that I am called to share with others. For this reason, I choose to place few boundaries on the expression of that gift, allowing my work to be shaped and formed by the continually changing spirit that moves me, the contradictions of humanity that I hold within myself, the beauty, joy, heartache, anger, and true love that I have experienced—all of which are fused into the subject, the color, and the brushstrokes.