Reflections of Nostalgia

My sustained investigation focuses on the details that make a room personal. As a nostalgic person, I have been taking mental pictures of each room of the house I've grown up in. My room is very personal and nostalgic for me because it is the one room I have control over. I chose this sustained investigation because I was sentimental thinking about the end of senior year, packing up my room and moving, and never living in that variation of my room again. I know I will remember the big things in my room: my easel, bed, and the white blinds that block out zero sunlight. But I wanted to remember the little things that made it mine: the little perfume bottles, plates, hair clips, and jewelry, each with their own backstory.

I used watercolor as my medium because it allows a painting to be loose and out of the lines, and the color can be light and bleed into another– reminding me of memory. The transparent objects apparent in most of my still lifes remind me of memory because I relate memories to looking through water– things are blurry, not everything is in the lines, but still, you know what you are seeing. The mirrors and reflections further emphasize the objects that are important to me by reflecting them from another angle. The color palette that unites the totality of my work consists of cool tones with an occasional pop of color, such as pink. These colors, being muted or soft, remind me of the feeling of nostalgia. 

I believe that memories create each individual's identity: memories of their childhood, their loved ones, and what is no longer in their lives. Our memories keep people and places alive in our minds; however, our memories fail us as they fade with time. Alzheimer's disease runs in my family, and I have lost two grandparents to it, but the most difficult aspect is them forgetting everything they love. I believe that paintings freeze time, providing the same timeless feeling that I want to capture with my still lifes. They help me hold onto parts of my childhood, and, more specifically, parts of the version of myself that will change as I grow up and move on. My bedroom represents a big part of who I am because it contains the details of who I was and what I carefully picked out and placed there.