Memories & Dreams
2022 Collection by Shannon Sorensen
Artist Statement - This year, I pushed myself to really dig in and explore how I enjoy creating art. Beginning with listening to my intuition, and honoring those creative sparks that ignite my curiosity & playfulness, I have found myself increasingly drawn to making these vibrant abstracts & expressive dreamscapes. At times, they intersect. Often, they’re influenced by the books I read, the music I’m listening to, a poem that has settled into my heart, and how I’m feeling in the moment.
Spending time outside with my kids, I marvel at their carefree imaginations and wonder for the simplest things in nature. I find myself reflecting on my own childhood, enjoying and exploring the woods and beaches around our home.
At the easel, I tune into my inner child, full of imaginative, wide-eyed wonder, and dream of places and worlds untouched by worry for the destruction of natural spaces. With hope for the future, and gratitude for the past, I have decided going forward to give a portion of sales from paintings and prints to help support reforestation in areas of North America affected by wildfires, as well as land and coastal preservation and restoration projects throughout Connecticut and greater New England.
So far in 2022, we’ve planted 25 trees in Oregon and British Columbia through One Tree Planted. Plant a tree for free today.
ABSTRACT DREAMSCAPE
24x36 Acrylic on canvas, painted January 2022, at home in Newington, CT
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I wanted to create something that looked otherworldly, and I was listening to “Across the Universe” by The Beatles when the idea for this piece started to take shape. This was the largest piece I had worked on at that point, and spent several days playing with layering, making marks, drips and texture.
Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup / They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe / Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind… / Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes… / Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letterbox / They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe… / Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns / It calls me on and on across the universe…
CHANGING TIDES
18x24 Acrylic on canvas, painted June 2022, at home in Newington, CT
After reading “Where the Crawdads Sing”, I made this piece, thinking of the setting of the marshes and the part the tides played in the progress of the story. My father is a fisherman, and when I was younger, we had a fishing store and would spend evenings going to the beach and marshes to go fishing or digging for clams. The story reminded me of so many memories and feelings of smelling the low tide, the salty air, and feeling my hands in the water, sand or mud.
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HAPPY LITTLE BOATS
8x10 Acrylic on repurposed canvas, painted January 2022, at home in Newington, CT
We spent so much time on the water when I was young, on a small fishing boat, and in my teens, learning to sail a boat my dad bought called Inertia. This piece is an ode to those days on the water, seeing other families and fisherman bobbing and zipping by off the shore.
COASTAL STUDY 2
9x12 Acrylic on paper, painted June 2022, at Mill Pond Park in Newington, CT
I sat with a friend for a while at Mill Pond Park on a beautiful spring day, and we painted together. It’s amazing how changing up your creative environment can affect your art. It was also a bit challenging, not getting blown around by the wind and breezes.
This is the second in a series of coastal explorations using fingerpainting technique.
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COASTAL STUDY 1
9x12 Acrylic on paper, painted June 2022, at home in Newington, CT
Isn’t it weird and a little sad that as we grow older, things like fingerpainting become too messy to enjoy? I wanted to work backwards and get back to that childhood joy of sweeping paint across a piece of paper with my fingers, making messy dabs and smears. I decided to give it a try, to challenge myself a bit to get away from the brushstroke style I had been creating with for a while.
This is the first in a series of coastal explorations using fingerpainting technique.
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COASTAL STUDY 3
9x12 Acrylic on paper, painted June 2022, at home in Newington, CT
This was my third time fingerpainting a coastal study, and this time, my kids were home and seeing me paint and were UTTERLY AMAZED that mommy was getting her hands so messy with paint. I hope they see what I create and know that there’s so much possibility as they grow up. They can make messes and break rules. I hope they find the same peace and joy that I have found with my art.
This is the third in a series of coastal explorations using fingerpainting technique.
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SOMEWHERE NORTH OF HERE
24x36 Acrylic on canvas, painted June-August 2022, at home in Newington, CT
I was playing with the idea of a place from my memory, or maybe a blend of a couple places, and how they feel to me. One place is the coast of Maine. Another is the White Mountains in New Hampshire. And beyond that, dreaming of places I haven’t been, or perhaps I have in another life or another time.
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ABSTRACT UPCYCLE
Made from thrifted canvas art, painted June 2022, at home in Newington, CT
This was a thrifted piece of printed art on canvas that I covered over with white gesso primer, and just went a little wild. Some days I like to create something with a bit more defined structure and form, and other days, I just want to let loose.
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WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS GROW 1
9x12 Acrylic on paper, painted August 2022, at home in Newington, CT
The left panel of two paintings, a blend of brush and fingerpainting, inspired by imagining the Shire in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Wide open sweeping skies, and fields of wildflowers that stretch on far beyond what the eye can see.
THE WORLD IS WIDE
18x24 Acrylic on repurposed canvas, painted January 2022, at home in Newington, CT
Inspired by imagining Middle Earth of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, this unique piece was made by putting two pieces of repurposed canvas together. I had painted the bottom half, and was working on the top, but growing frustrated that it wasn’t turning out the way I hoped. I set it aside, along with this bottom piece, and stepping back, decided I wanted to put them together and finish it off as one piece. They are glued at a seam in the middle, and mounted on a solid canvas.
WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS GROW 2
9x12 Acrylic on paper, painted August 2022, at home in Newington, CT
The right panel of two paintings, a blend of brush and fingerpainting, inspired by imagining the Shire in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. This was an enjoyable diptych to create, and I love how they look on their own, as well as together.
THE GRIEF OF TIME
9x12 Acrylic on paper, painted February 2022, at home in Newington, CT
I read this phrase in a book, “the grief of time”, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I feel it - the grief of time. At 39, I have lost grandparents and a pregnancy. I have two beautiful children growing faster than I can keep up. Time passes and it is bittersweet, caught in the present moment of life, and looking both forward and back, desperate for it to slow down while knowing that it only seems to keep speeding up.
SONGBIRD
12x12 Acrylic on wood panel, painted in March 2022, at home in Newington, CT
Inspired while listening to Fleetwood Mac, this melody always fills me with an indescribable feeling. I started with a basic form of a bird, using black, and allowed the painting to take shape over a couple weeks. The night before I was to display my art here, I heard the news of Chrstine McVie’s death, and this piece took on even more meaning to me.
BECOMING WHO I AM
9x12 Acrylic on paper, painted February 2022, at home in Newington, CT
“Becoming Who I Am” is a phrase from a song by Margaret Becker called “Clay and Water”, and has always resonated with me as we slowly become who we are throughout our lives, constantly changing form, taking on new characteristics while leaving pieces behind.
This piece was created at a time where I felt like I was truly emerging into the artist I hoped to become.
ASTER
9x12 Acrylic on paper, painted May 2022, at home in Newington, CT
Aster is a flower named for the Greek word for star, symbolizing love, wisdom, and hope. I painted this on a day that typically brings me some sadness, to bring some light into the day.
“A Late Walk”, by Robert Frost
When I go up through the mowing field,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
Half closes the garden path.
And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words.
A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.
I end not far from my going forth
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.