My paintings are depictions of emotional states. I like to call them psychological landscapes. They’re about how it feels to be in the world. We’ve become increasingly alienated from each other and our communities. On top of that we seem to have lost all connections with nature, even to a point where contemporary nature is increasingly represented by an artificial design that has to generate the mere illusion of nature. I need to make my art to be able to navigate my own feelings and emotions about this current state of our society.
Ultimately I attempt to formulate a new narrative of longing and hope, structured on my belief in the possibilities of a better future for our society. In order to accomplish this I’ve moved away from postmodernism and, instead, I’m part of metamodernism.
I mainly work with paint, both acrylic and oil paint. I also regularly use oil pastels. My paintings often are a sort of compilation of different photos. The photos go through an intensive process in Photoshop and this will form the basis of a new painting.
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1984, The Hague, Netherlands |
Melissa Couzijn 