Feature Story : The Need to Self-Express
Artist Nick Peterson-Davis is currently creating a series of paintings in partnership with Bee Girl Organization to promote conservation, education, and research on bee’s. For his paintings, he is using the perspective of bee’s which allows him to get the pixelated look.
Photo by Eliana Flores-Barber
As he opens the door to his studio, walls filled with canvases painted with bright colors and flowers appear. In the quiet morning, as the sunlight shines through the back windows one can’t help but feel like an artist themselves. An artist's studio is more than just a work space, it is a room dedicated to releasing the stresses of the outside world and channeling that energy onto a canvas.
Walking into the studio I see paintbrushes group together like a bouquet of flowers placed on the entrance table. In front of them is a log of art lovers who’ve entered his studio throughout the week. Past the table is a blue couch that's a little worn down. It brings a sense of comfort and welcomeness knowing how many have come here to sit and admire the art. Pushed up against the back of the couch, is a table lined with jars of paint brushes, a coffee cup, paper towels, half painted canvases, sketches, art tools, and paints laid out in order of color. Behind it, stands a tall easel with a large canvas; painted on it are two girls sitting in a garden playing the hand game slide.
Our artist, Nick Peterson-Davis, walks behind his desk with his phone in hand. He turns his head around towards me and asks “are you ok if I play music? Before I start painting I like to turn on music.”
I respond with “of course” as I don’t want to disturb his morning rituals. I continue to walk around his studio taking in the paintings as I wait for him to finish setting up for the day. Making my way back to the entrance of his studio, I pull out a chair and sit down at the table.
He emerges from the back room with sparkling water in his hand and walks over to me.
As he sits down on the couch facing me, I hit record on my phone, and our interview commences.
Inside the intimate SoWa studio of Nick Peterson-Davis. He took over the studio space only two years ago after having shared a studio with two other artists.
Photos by Eliana Flores-Barber
Art has an undeniable beauty. The way an artist can craft images onto a blank canvas is in many ways magical.
Since I was a child, my love for art has always been at the forefront of my life. It was a way to dream up different worlds and create images I believed represented beauty. My art consisted of, or better yet, attempted to create realistic images. For some reason this style called to me. Being able to create a drawing that looked identical to an object or person in front of me fascinated me. Traveling to Italy and seeing some of the greatest artworks from the Renaissance period like Botticelli’s Primavera or his Birth of Venus furthered my love for realism.
But what was it about realism that captivated me? What was it about this style of art that helped me represent thoughts and ideas I had? These questions then started focusing on art in general. Why did some artists decide to work with cubism, while others chose a surrealist route? What made an artist say this is the style that calls to me?
It’s these questions that first guided me to figuring out how and why artists work with the certain art styles they do. What I found was self-expression.
Expression has always been a crucial element of art, however, the concept of self-expression is a more modern phenomenon as explained by Felicity Ratté, an art history professor at Emerson College.
Prior to the Renaissance period, the idea of the artist “self” was uncommon to see in paintings. In Ratté’s studies of Italian art, the main subject in paintings consisted of Christian based stories. “They’re producing works of art as a way to demonstrate their faith and to also practice their faith,” explains Ratté.
In similar ways to Italian art, Ratté’s study of Islamic art led her to understand that politics as well was a key subject.
“A lot of artistic creation was about maintaining their notions of power and the correctness of their rule,” she says.
As seen with these two examples, the idea of community was being emphasized toward citizens, and in turn artists.
"When you're dealing with the public, and in the community, you very much don't want people to be thinking of themselves, you want them to be thinking about the group,” Ratté emphasizes.
While the importance of community continued to be seen in art for centuries, during the Renaissance period small glimpses of the artist's self began appearing. With artists such as Michelangelo painting himself in his fresco The Last Judgment, self-portraits appearing, and patrons seeking artists with unique styles, we see that individuality was being recognized and praised.
However, to fully break free from the formulaic traditions of classical art, and to better self-express, decades later artists began creating new art styles. Here lies the creation of the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstract Impressionism art movements.
With these new styles, artists were better able to self-express in manners that were personalized to them. No longer were they solely focused on creating portraits of political rulers or bringing to life the stories learned in religious teaching. What came from these new styles was, as well, an understanding of its importance on mental health.
Taken from a Zoom interview with Felicity Ratté.
Audio interview recorded by Eliana Flores-Barber
The concepts for Nick Peterson-Davis painting come from the sketches he draws each day. Once an idea is set, he begins working with different color dynamics that would best bring his vision to life.
Photo by Eliana Flores-Barber
Although his current artworks come years after the Impressionist movement, for Nick Peterson-Davis the Impressionist art style is what allows him to be reflective of his spirit.
After spending years working in very technical careers - management and nursing - and his art being based in realism, he explains “you lose track of really, the apple, or whatever it is, you're painting, you know, the subject matter, or what’s the purpose of the painting other than to look like some, you know, so I wasn't trying to create that. That's magical and wonderful. But that's not the kind of magic I wanted to create.”
His subject matter began to change. Drawing from his childhood fascination with gardens and wildlife, he began painting interpretations of flowers.
Taken from an interview with Nick Peterson-Davis at his SoWa art studio.
Audio interview recorded by Eliana Flores-Barber
“So my gardens are really, for people who are open to it, will enter your heart and lift you up and make the size of your mouth go up. I don't like to bring folks down although I’m not always successful with that, I can be awful, cause I'm human too. But in my paintings, that's what I'm trying to do,” Peterson-Davis explains.
Now creating paintings that focus on the beauty he finds in the world and the happy moments in his life, his mindset towards life is more positive.
As I walk out of his studio, I wish him a good day and he responds with “oh it’ll be a great one.”
In seeing how art can lift someone up, it made me wonder what it was about art that had this effect on the artists?
In an interview with art therapist Kimberly Gibson we spoke of the importance of art in life and the benefits it holds.
As humans we have a need to express ourselves. For the most part, expression comes out in a verbal manner, however, there are times or situations where one feels unable to verbally express themselves or work on understanding experiences they had. It’s in these moments that people turn to non-verbal forms of expression. As Gibson explains, “a lot of times people don't have words for their experience, so by bypassing that verbal part of their brain and going back to imagery, they can tell their story that way, which is really, really powerful."
For artist Sorin Bica, this idea couldn’t be truer.
An intimate showcase of Sorin Bica’s artwork can be seen at his SoWa studio. His larger pieces are housed in a studio in Framingham, MA.
Photo by Eliana Flores-Barber
Directly across the hall from Peterson-Davis, Bica has his own studio set up. While shared with two other artists, his side is an intimate showcase of his work. Bright, bold, and colorful are only a few words which can be used to describe Bica’s art. Deriving from his prior work as a political cartoon artist, his current style is a take on his everyday life, cartoons, and his love of simplistic forms.
His art tells the stories of his life. From his mother, wife, and two children, it’s a documentation of both the joyful and heartbreaking times. It shares moments of growth, understanding, and the fight to keep moving forward with life.
“All of a sudden you get to one of those points in your life where out of nowhere an event chucks your equilibrium and your beliefs,” he says.
After what he considered a perfect summer, spending time with family and painting as much as he could, life changed for him and his family as his wife became ill.
“What do you do to make her hold on? What do you do to continue to work and tiptoe around everything?” he sadly questions.
Sadness, concern, fear, all of it grew heavy on his mind. To release all his emotions, he turned to his art. Nearly every day he began painting his interpretation of his wife, to memorialize her soul on canvas. It was his way of coping with his emotions so that he could still enjoy life with her and their children.
Art became more than a career to him, it was a way for him to cope with all that he was experiencing. While he is unsure of what the future will bring, his art is one thing he knows will never fade, “it's like breathing air, I have to do it.”
Taken from a Zoom interview with Kimberly Gibson.
Audio interview recorded by Eliana Flores-Barber
Sorin Bica’s painting subjects come from his innate need to document his life and those who surround him.
Photos by Eliana Flores-Barber
As stories such as these artists are learned and with the grand changes of the past years, the study of art on mental health has become increasingly popular. Nearly all of the research available aims at providing evidence on the positive impact art has on people.
In a 2017 arts project reported by The Guardian, 71% of participants revealed a decrease in anxiety, 73% decrease in depression, and 69% felt more socially included. The Arts on Prescription project which was reviewed, offers participants the opportunity to work with a wide range of materials and styles in order to broaden their opportunities for growth.
In a more recent COVID-19 social study led by Dr. Daisy Fancourt of the University College of London she and her team tracked a cohort of 72,000 UK adults ages 18 and up. Their goal was to see if arts can improve mental health. Each week they would check in with their cohort and note how long they were participating in artistic activities. What they found was those who spent 30 minutes or more on art activities have lower rates of depression and anxiety. As well, 21% of their cohort had increased their participation in the arts.
Infographic by Eliana Flores-Barber was created using a combination of research studies and information provided by Gibson.
Through many research studies and analysis, the use of art for self-expression as well has changed the way art is being analyzed by therapists. Gibson explains when art was first being studied for its impact on mental health, a lot of what was being analyzed was more psychoanalytic - each detail and symbol of a painting or drawing was being analyzed. However, this has changed within the past decade.
“For me, it's much more, It's much more about the relationship, like, I'm not necessarily analyzing their artwork for anything, it's more like, if we have a goal to work on anxiety, or if we have a goal to work on depression or trauma, then it's the relationship I'm facilitating with them, and how they are responding and connecting to their artwork,” Gibson explains.
To look at the whole image we are better able to see what it is the artist wants to express.
For Jennifer Jean Okumura, she views her paintings in a similar manner.
In the same studio as Bica, Okumura has her wall filled with paintings of figures, faces, and abstract shapes - all of which take on a darker tone. To my surprise, as I walk into her studio I was immediately greeted with a hug and her saying “It’s so great to see you in person.”
Okumura has a bright and warm personality. Constantly with a smile on her face one begins to wonder why it is that her art takes on a somber and dark presence.
For Okumura her art is therapeutic. “I am constantly exploring the relationship between humans, nature, and objects. As an objective homage to my Eastern and Western traditions, I think art reflects what is beautiful and sometimes misconceived in both cultures,” she explains.
In her art she shares experiences from her childhood, moments from her adult life, and her constant search for new passions. While there are details in the painting which allude to her childhood, for her the painting as a whole is what represents her emotions, conflicts, and struggles.
Her canvases are a place where she is able to leave her past experiences and live with a positive spirit.
Before entering her studio, Jennifer Jean Okumura has a painting set up to help welcome visitors.
Photo by Eliana Flores-Barber
Paintings have existed longer than the written word and with them expression of events. They share stories of hunting, battles, romance, and everyday life. In our modern time, as we continue to stress the importance of the self we must see the value art plays in it. Art allows us to say things which may be challenging to formulate in words. It gives us the space to express all that we feel and events we experience in our life. For some artists, self-expression through art has allowed them to feel more joy and for others, it has become a necessity to keep moving forward with life.