Biography
Meghan McDonough is currently a BFA Student at SUNY New Paltz.
Artist Statement
(In Her Own Words)
The main experiences that led me to art lie mostly in my childhood and continuously as I began to find myself as my own spirit. My young, creative and scattered mind used to frustrate me because I felt “odd”. I was the young girl who painted and named her pet rocks under the playground; I was also shy. Because of this I found it extremely difficult to express my insecurities, anxiety, stress and even laughter and joy.
Sketching characters and objects around me defined my life in a self-accepting manner, life stripping my underlying emotions to the surface. I found that drawing and painting took me away from the chaos of my childhood and I began to find myself intrigued in a whole new world as I started to feel my emotions within my art. My mother was an artist but never pursued it yet, she always knew that I had the ability to make something beautiful of it and supported my decisions. Her support allowed me to encourage myself and take risks. Walking into my brother’s room (even though I wasn’t allowed in there) and gazing at his drawings (of horribly creepy aliens/clowns) fascinated yet horrifically inspired me. I guess for once my strangeness and curiosity made me feel at home with his unique curiosity. This began my infatuation of creating my own emotional- internal dialogue through all types of art forms. I know that I need to develop my art to its fullest capacity in order to be satisfied with even beginning to teach art to others. Some of the artists that have influenced me are, Josephine Wall, Alex Grey, Egon Shille and Zak Smith. A big strength of mine is my ambiguous compositions, overall understanding of emotional movement, rich color and linearity. I would like to work on painting more male figures. I most definitely am not afraid to be extreme with paint and take risks. I also love to layer paint so the painting becomes more alive and in the viewers actual existence.
I have always been a hands-on artist and aspire to see results with the stroke of my hand to the canvas/paper or whatever mediums. Drawing and especially painting keeps me at ease. The flowing variance between wrinkles and tattered shadows along the human form to the planes of the face is what really gets my brush (pencil, charcoal, water color pencils, oil pastels) going. I often have to reflect upon what I have created and where it came from afterwards because when I am painting I feel like I’m in a different space, one that does not enter my thoughts…. charismatic movement in the present; a euphoric healing. Visually, the angst, twists and strangles in which you see within my paintings are associated with our everyday emotional sufferings often stemming from compulsive worrying or thought of what may be ahead. This uncomfortable wavering emotion is what I express through drawing and painting as: insecurity, guilt, grief, disgust, scarcity, entanglement and compaction and depression. This distress often alludes to a speck of hope or an eye awakening moment of clarity. For me, utmost clarity is only sought through experiencing true pain… yet is the most authentic and beautiful quality in which human beings can possibly go through.
I see that my work has similar common themes; a sense of deep felt emotion or chronic thought through linear swirling or direct movement. This moment of intensity I see as a moment of awakening and wisdom. Sometimes energetic symbolism interconnecting between human beings and creatures will allure me. From there shamanistic ideals spread. Some kind of struggle or maya (delusion) is a common interpretation of the feeling viewers get from my paintings. Many of the figures are strained under pressure and are gasping for freedom. To me, this sort of tension and pressure is what makes us grow. Pain and sorrow is the pure emotion that makes us vulnerable to absorbing life’s realizations and spiritual purity. I wish to define this pure rawness within the flow of the form to the aura and energy of the surrounding environmental background. There often may be a remnant of mystery, longing or ominous grievance of a lost love that you may or may not have to look deeper for.
The main experiences that led me to art lie mostly in my childhood and continuously as I began to find myself as my own spirit. My young, creative and scattered mind used to frustrate me because I felt “odd”. I was the young girl who painted and named her pet rocks under the playground; I was also shy. Because of this I found it extremely difficult to express my insecurities, anxiety, stress and even laughter and joy.
Sketching characters and objects around me defined my life in a self-accepting manner, life stripping my underlying emotions to the surface. I found that drawing and painting took me away from the chaos of my childhood and I began to find myself intrigued in a whole new world as I started to feel my emotions within my art. My mother was an artist but never pursued it yet, she always knew that I had the ability to make something beautiful of it and supported my decisions. Her support allowed me to encourage myself and take risks. Walking into my brother’s room (even though I wasn’t allowed in there) and gazing at his drawings (of horribly creepy aliens/clowns) fascinated yet horrifically inspired me. I guess for once my strangeness and curiosity made me feel at home with his unique curiosity. This began my infatuation of creating my own emotional- internal dialogue through all types of art forms. I know that I need to develop my art to its fullest capacity in order to be satisfied with even beginning to teach art to others. Some of the artists that have influenced me are, Josephine Wall, Alex Grey, Egon Shille and Zak Smith. A big strength of mine is my ambiguous compositions, overall understanding of emotional movement, rich color and linearity. I would like to work on painting more male figures. I most definitely am not afraid to be extreme with paint and take risks. I also love to layer paint so the painting becomes more alive and in the viewers actual existence.
I have always been a hands-on artist and aspire to see results with the stroke of my hand to the canvas/paper or whatever mediums. Drawing and especially painting keeps me at ease. The flowing variance between wrinkles and tattered shadows along the human form to the planes of the face is what really gets my brush (pencil, charcoal, water color pencils, oil pastels) going. I often have to reflect upon what I have created and where it came from afterwards because when I am painting I feel like I’m in a different space, one that does not enter my thoughts…. charismatic movement in the present; a euphoric healing. Visually, the angst, twists and strangles in which you see within my paintings are associated with our everyday emotional sufferings often stemming from compulsive worrying or thought of what may be ahead. This uncomfortable wavering emotion is what I express through drawing and painting as: insecurity, guilt, grief, disgust, scarcity, entanglement and compaction and depression. This distress often alludes to a speck of hope or an eye awakening moment of clarity. For me, utmost clarity is only sought through experiencing true pain… yet is the most authentic and beautiful quality in which human beings can possibly go through.
I see that my work has similar common themes; a sense of deep felt emotion or chronic thought through linear swirling or direct movement. This moment of intensity I see as a moment of awakening and wisdom. Sometimes energetic symbolism interconnecting between human beings and creatures will allure me. From there shamanistic ideals spread. Some kind of struggle or maya (delusion) is a common interpretation of the feeling viewers get from my paintings. Many of the figures are strained under pressure and are gasping for freedom. To me, this sort of tension and pressure is what makes us grow. Pain and sorrow is the pure emotion that makes us vulnerable to absorbing life’s realizations and spiritual purity. I wish to define this pure rawness within the flow of the form to the aura and energy of the surrounding environmental background. There often may be a remnant of mystery, longing or ominous grievance of a lost love that you may or may not have to look deeper for.
