In the past an artist’s subject matter was limited to what wealthy patrons commissioned of them. These paintings were usually flattering portraits with which the artist was expected to showcase the subject’s high status. However interesting and beautiful these paintings may be, I have always found the more intimate studies of an artist’s own friends and family to be especially “real” and intriguing. What is truly important in this world is the people in our lives and the relationships we forge. Today’s society encourages materialism as well as isolationism, but through the act of painting I am united with friends, family, and neighbors, and then further connected with the community through the display of my work.
My new series is focused on the people I know who have inspired me. In April of 2007, I hosted a photo shoot inviting people to have their portraits taken. My guests’ true personalities emerged in the relaxed atmosphere and were expertly captured by my friend and accomplished photographer Kat Schwartz. Using these photos as reference I painted this series freehanded in acrylics on linen canvases.
This new body of work is a departure from my past series of richly textured evocative paintings of characters from my own imagination, ”TEXTure”. Inspired by my metamorphosis into wife and mother, those portraits reflected a need for private moments of introspection using the model’s image to convey my own inner world.
In contrast, “Through Many Eyes” expresses the model’s own world exclusively. Through this new installation I have strived to capture not only the likeness of the subject, but their heart and soul as well. Instead of relying on the unique specialized painting surfaces and layers of thick paint and text of my past pieces to give information about the subject, the new works allow for my choice of painting techniques to tell their story. Color conveys mood, and the style expresses their personality. By displaying a photograph of the model alongside the painting, opportunity for a new and different perspective emerges. The intended result is a composite of painting and photograph as filtered by the viewer’s own perceptions- “through many eyes.” Recognizing this integration of perspectives brings focus onto the viewer as an active participant in the work, thus the traditional becomes contemporary.
Aimi lives in Houston, TX where she draws most of her inspiration from her children. Born with a paintbrush in her hand , Aimi has never ceased to experiment with new materials. Painting is her solace, and sculpting is her joy, but motherhood is where her true pride and happiness lie.
She has sketched in the Garden of the Gods at Colorado, and built many a faerie house in the Cathedral Woods of Monhegan Island in Maine. She attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, and was also a Sharpe Summer Scholar, going on to study at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan. Even in the city she could always find the flowers growing in the cracks of the sidewalk.