Nina Stolz Bellucci

Paintings from my most recent body of work, Lines Are Everywhere, seek to redefine our understanding of the idea of “community”. While a neighborhood is most commonly seen as a makeup of a diverse group of people with different ideas, backgrounds, and experiences, I often think of this group as having more in common than not, as evidenced by their shared experience of place. I gathered source material from the neighborhood surrounding my studio by collecting discarded objects and commonly heard words and by also taking photographs of unusual shapes, structures, and shadows. I then made mixed media collages with these remnants. While these collages are finished pieces in their own right, they also serve as models for larger paintings.

In the translation from model to painting, a sort of raw emotion is unveiled that cannot be expressed by the collages themselves. This emotion is evidence of an attempt at understanding through observation and empathy, by the viewer and myself; it is confirmation of reverence for the neighborhood, for the idea of community, and existence of a shared, human experience. My hope is that in this time of uncertainty and hopelessness we can find some peace in knowing that perhaps we are more alike than not.