CURRENT EXHIBITION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Under World

I conceived of these paintings as I set out, a few years ago, on a journey to heal from complex trauma. I found myself annoyed and frustrated to learn that, in order to feel better, I somehow had to feel worse first. Especially when it comes to long-buried, foundational hurts, the hurt must be felt before it can be moved through. This applies to both personal and systemic traumas; healing cannot come before feeling the pain of the experience, shedding the protection of numbness. The River Lethe came to mind, a mythical river that, according to the ancient Greeks, was part of the Underworld or Hades. When a person drank from the River Lethe, they would forget all about their former life. At the time, I was confronting and grieving my own lost memories, feeling that at some point, I must have drunk from this river myself.

 I am a firm believer in the power of myth and folklore as tools to better understand the world and each other. This work is a piece of personal mythmaking, imagining the healing path as a journey into some kind of inner underworld, influenced by the confluences of these hellish Greek waterways, but shaped by my earthly surroundings. Each of the primary rivers of the underworld is depicted in these paintings. The River Lethe, of course, as well as the Acheron, Phlegethon, Cocytus, Styx, and a personal favorite, the Mnemosyne. The Mnemosyne is not often included in depictions of Hades, but it is the river parallel to the Lethe. To drink from its waters is to remember, to welcome back into oneself all of what was - to become whole again.

This underworld is constructed from collaged bits of real-life New England that matched the idea of these mythical riverscapes. I chose to interpret each location broadly, moving away from rivers of fire toward a depiction that better matched my own experiences. The discovery process is always my favorite part of painting, and these works felt especially “discovered.” It was often not clear to me what the place would look like until I worked to find it. I now feel a deep affinity and affection for these hidden places, which is ultimately what I hoped to achieve: a way to convince myself that it was good to venture to these sometimes dark, but sometimes brilliantly light, places in my own psyche.

A handful of these works speak to another underworld location: the Asphodel Meadows, or the afterlife for “ordinary people.” The Asphodel I imagined is more like a garden, a place to rest from the long journey. I populated this space with commonplace plants, with the idea that there is often no grand, external shift in any healing process. One is often left exactly where they were, only with a new set of eyes to better see.

GENERAL ARTIST STATEMENT

Growing up in Vermont, the outdoors was a calming, reflective, and often mystical space for me. This feeling of connectedness with nature has always been a driving force in my life and work. Photographs from my daily life act as anchoring references in my colorful, acrylic landscapes. I often work from a single image, but in my new work, I use collected photos to create a collage of a new, fictional landscape. I use the Guerra Paint system, mixing single pigments with an acrylic medium to create a matte, yet vibrant paint. While my work can be viewed as an exploration and celebration of the natural world, it also functions as an autobiographical outlet.

Through my surroundings, I feel out the boundaries of my existence, the spaces that contain me and form my personal geography. Working with themes of home, belonging, and healing, the landscape offers itself up as a mirror, revealing truths about ourselves and the world around us. Influenced by memory and experience, I aim to create a universe that is both fantastical and familiar, picturing a place not through strict realism but through its personality, mood, or feeling. I'm captivated by both the detail and variety of the natural landscape, as well as the suburban spaces where nature and human society converge in a strange dance of balance, submission, or dominance.

BIO

Nola Parker is a self-taught painter who lives and works in central Vermont. Her work has been exhibited nationally and included in flat-file programs with Collar Works and Ortega y Gasset Projects. Her work is in a permanent public collection in San Antonio, TX, through the Salud-Arte Public Art Program. She has appeared in publications such as New American Paintings, Aether Art, and Create Magazine. She is represented in New England by Sarah Bouchard Gallery and in Texas by Wally Workman Gallery.