Isabella Finnegan

Throughout my series, I took examples of small moments in time when I learned something from my family - from handling difficult situations to observing the way they communicate their emotions in everyday life and tied these moments to the question, ‘How will we be remembered in life and death?’ The memories shown throughout the series represent the idea that the lessons passed down to us from our family are what we carry with us, keeping their memory alive generations after their death. 

In my artworks without figures, I mixed water into acrylics to create blurred, washed, and dream-like landscapes, because they’re my interpretations of memories based on the stories that were passed down to me about my family that had passed. However, as the series grew, I put more focus into contrasting colors, boldening lines of solid memories, and loosening detail on certain parts of memories passed down to me rather than washing out the paintings. I found myself being drawn to trees as a symbol of stability, as roots symbolize connection even when traveling different ways, ending up back at the same base.