AND YOU WERE THERE TOO
Showing: October 4th – November 15th
Reception: TBA
Artist Statement:
An ongoing meditation on loss, transformation, and the fluidity of identity, my empty-dress paintings are witness to that which is mourned, transmuting, or being born. Historically, clothing has communicated social information such as sexual availability or fertility, class, religious status. Garments communicate the restrictions and the freedoms of a culture, narrowly defining the people who wear them. What would the world would be like if the message a garment carried were under the purview of its wearer and not that of their society? Empty clothing is emblematic to me of how much we do not know about other people, how much is theirs to define. Inside every garment can be a personal sovereignty that holds out hope for freedom, spiritual opening, and change.
Artist Bio:
Alison Moncrieff was born and raised in Monte Sereno, California. For over 30 years, Moncrieff has been writing poetry, painting, and enjoying life with her family in Oakland, CA. Moncrieff earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from Mills College in 1990; she has since worked as a landscape designer, writer, bookseller, and editor, though, she has described raising her two children, Ian (15) and Nora (11) as the best job she has had. Moncrieff sites her children as her main source of inspiration and has learned how to love her own creativity through that inspiration.
The self-taught painter began her painting journey in 2014, working out of her home studio daily.
From the artist: “I am painting the difficult edges of and questions inside my emotions. Using my voice has always been at the core of my work, whether poetry or painting or design. Not because I’ve been great at using my voice but because I am always trying to figure out if and how to use it! I find healthy expressions of grief and anger to be scarce and sadly linked with shame in day-to-day living, but I know they are there, natural and important, even beneficial. Linking images and color with expression and validation of harder emotions, touching the cores of our losses and honoring them so they resonate with the viewer, is what I hope to be doing.”