Artist Statement
Mallory Torola
For as long as I can remember, I have had an intense drive deep within me to make art, one that won’t let me rest until I obey it. My true self is one that is evaluating the world in an artistic or aesthetic sense, stewing over a new idea or thought, creating or working on a piece. Lately I have been exploring close relationships in my life and the inner self that these souls contain. At the same time, I have been eliminating the aspect of personal identity, and by the elimination trying to explore what is really meant by those two words ‘personal identity’. I struggle with the meaning of my own personal identity every day: constantly questioning who I am in relation to myself, other people, and the world. Who defines these things, and how can I make my own voice stronger against the noise of many other voices?
I have been trying to work in a fast, loose, and vivid way with strokes and lines that speak in their own right. I’ve learned that if try to maintain too much control, I work much more slowly and overthink things. When I let go I get to a better place, where my hand and heart flow together.
Some of my biggest influences are the Impressionists. They have taught me many things about the use of light, optical blending of colors, and the effects one can achieve with different atmospheres and lighting on a similar subject. From them I learned that light doesn’t always have to be logical, and it was there I first saw how well light and color can be used to create different emotions in a piece. I experienced in the work of the Impressionists a spiritual feeling that I wanted to emulate in the quality or atmosphere of my pieces; whether it be comfort in a Divine presence, struggling or wrestling with God, rebelling against a religious identity, or a scream into the vastness of the Universe.
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