LAURA WACHA

I am motivated by the potential theater of the painted picture. My work is narrative in nature, and my focus is to create a visual itch that lingers in the mind like an unanswered question. On each canvas I paint images both familiar and fantastic, giving equal importance to topics domestically mundane and globally tragic or vice versa. Tucked between cartoon-like creatures and patterned backdrops are brightly colored dollops of intrigue and ambiguity that serve as an invitation for the viewer to fill in any perceived narrative blanks.

Naturally, opportunity exists in the act of painting to create a pleasurable anxiety not only through the characters present in each narrative, but also in the manner they are portrayed. Both composition and color urge that I take full advantage of their potential through balance, discord and repetition. In my work, for every action there is a reaction or rebuke, for every blue there is an orange or green, for every shape there is it’s echo and void. I work on these aesthetic aspects of my paintings rather intuitively, keeping at it until the canvas feels like the controlled explosion of design and color that best expresses the tenor I am aiming for.