I am interested in the ambiguity of "in-between" states, where something is neither one thing nor another.
Bodies of water, especially lakes, deeply inspire me. I find a powerful resonance with the cyclical stages of life - growth, bloom, decay, and death, mirrored in the plant life they sustain. I make limited print editions from my photographs and paint montages, and this also informs the paintings I make.
Working with oil paint on canvas, a very fluid, rich medium, my work culls and distorts everyday images, plays with scale and orientation, repetition, and incongruence. I place these migrant blooms in fictional landscapes, exploring collage, mark making and layering in my process to create a landscape that is familiar - yet not of this world. Perhaps my interest in this in-between state stems from a life lived across continents, a constant negotiation of cultures. While my African heritage remains my anchor, I've experienced the disorienting pull of feeling neither fully belonging in new lands nor, ultimately, in the place I once called home.
—Carol Paquet