i wrote an artists statement because i had to for art class.

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Artist’s Statement. By Liz Toohey-Wiese

My painting is entitled “The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm,” an anonymous quote I found one night. I thought it was quite fitting for what I want my piece to convey.

One of my favorite books is Sabrina Ward Harrison’s “Spilling Open”. It is a journal composed mostly of her thoughts about growing up. After finishing my painting, I read on one of the last pages a statement that reminded me of what I wanted my painting to say:

“I have looked at the love that surrounds me... the new love and hidden love and desired love. But something changes when I slowly turn my love towards myself. That’s when my life becomes vividly full color. I think in healing ourselves we can start to heal the world. I can see the life in me, I can stop hiding my freckles, I can look deeply into my own eyes and high up into the branches of the trees. I can become myself.”

My painting was influenced by the artist Ben Olsen. The people in his paintings seem to connect and have deeper relationships than what is shown in the paintings. He uses drips and streaks and bold colors to leave things looking raw and real. I wanted to do the the same thing: leave an unpolished image.

“I am realizing I am enough as is, a work in progress”

As I grow up, I learn more and more of the importance of accepting myself; in all forms. Instead of becoming angry and frustrated with myself for being upset about something, I need to be telling myself that it is perfectly okay to be sad sometimes. I should be constantly embracing and accepting and encouraging and recognizing all the different parts of me.

“What I really want to say to myself is ‘it is alright’.”

I also wanted this painting to address my issues of identity, and the issues that every girl faces. It’s important to have a strong sense of who we are as young women, constantly bombarded by media images telling us how we should look and how we should feel and how we should be. We start believing that we should hate ourselves, when really we need to be constantly reminding ourselves that how we look and how we feel and how we are right now is absolutely fine.

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acrylic on canvas. 3 feet by 7 feet. YEAH ITS FREAKING HUGE!!!!! <3!!!