Emily Halpern – Q2 Art Competition – Artist Portfolio Magazine

• Artist Portfolio Magazine – Q2 Art Competition
• Emily Halpern – La Jolla, CA
• Instagram

My paintings map my inner world. The content is drawn from incidents in my personal life and my reactions to contemporary events in the world. My goal is to create “nowhere” spaces with an absence of horizon lines and populated by what psychoanalyst Carl Jung referred to as archetypal imagery. My process seeks to open the locked door of the unconscious through methods suggested by Surrealism. I use a square format that negates hierarchical narrative composition, whether top-to-bottom or left-to-right. As I work, I frequently rotate the canvas in order to disorient the view, helping new directions emerge and facilitating my stream of consciousness approach. Color is used to reconstruct different moods and to connect fragmentary, cryptic narratives. The mark varies from heavy and textural to a light touch befitting the atmosphere of the piece. My intention is to engage by slipping away, leaving gaps for viewers to fill as a springboard for their own imaginations.