Farida Hughes portrait by Mary Gardella
Photo by Mary Gardella Photography

I respond to and translate human stories of identity and relationships through the fluidity, transparency, and color harmonies of paint. My aesthetic is abstract, fluid, and painterly, obtained by mixing oil paints with contemporary epoxy resin and working on wood or aluminum panels. Co-mingling translucent layers in abstraction is how I make manifest the overlap and inter-connectedness of our unique human understandings of one another, the histories that influence us, and our common movements within the spaces of the world. Using vibrant color, bold shapes and glass-like surface textures, I invite contemplation on the mixing of known and perceived realities. My work comes into being as portraits without visages, expresses human stories without using the figure, and explores painting spaces as horizon-less landscapes of community and inclusion. 

In some current work I am exploring notions of metaphoric inner human light, noticing and reacting to light as it exposes and illuminates people as we gather, and working to develop an energy and feeling of radiance through the materiality of my medium. Another ongoing series is titled Blends, focusing on the blending of a person’s ethnic and cultural background. The Blends paintings come from stories I solicit and collect, each individual/family story touching on a piece of world history as remembered through generations.

 

Read more about the Blends and Common Threads series