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BARBED PILLOWS AND SILK SNAKES

Olivia Harwood's BFA Thesis Defense
Pacific 
Northwest College of Art
May, 2021

Barbed Pillows and Silk Snakes intends to create a pictorial space that highlights how emotion, body and mindset can change over the course of childhood into adulthood. Highly detailed objects and figures, repeated patterns, and soft textures and fabrics pull the viewer in a nostalgic and comforting way. In my painted interior worlds, I depict characters that may remind viewers of cartoons they enjoyed growing up, people or family members they know, or memories that bring up their own obsessions as a child. Even if some viewers can’t relate to all of the experiences in my paintings such as pop culture and nightmares, I am hoping some of their childhood memories will resurface through my chosen color palettes, textures and patterns.

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