My work is an abstract visual language of movement and rhythm. I paint in oils and oil-based enamels, incorporating drawing techniques and calligraphic marks into the wet paint, and juxtaposing thickly painted forms with wide swaths of negative space. Process and transition figure strongly in the creation of my compositions. Themes in my current work explore issues of adornment central to aging and self-awareness. Organic forms, patterns and color associations that are to me linked with specifics of place, identity, or personal, cultural and generational narratives, hint at escape and remembrance and move collectively toward a feeling of healthy abandon. I combine my themes and forms in order to explore abstraction. Increasingly I am using more mixed media techniques in my work, attributed to the materials readily available to me, and informed by the narratives of my youth.

Farida Hughes
2008