Abigail Frank

My paintings are diary entries of memories of feelings. They’re records of past sensory experiences. I am translating these memories of a touch, a smell, a taste, or something I saw into painted language.

The action of mark making transfers these specific memories of sensation onto the painted surface. Once a mark is painted, it embodies a new energy and may exist as a figure living within the painted world unrelated to the memory by which it was initially inspired. The forms transcend as each new form is born onto the canvas. Forms are poured, brushed, stamped, or wiped onto the canvas in reaction to the mark previously made. These forms interact, creating a surprising dynamic. They metamorphose into a composition discovered through a spontaneous process.

The act of painting is an exercise to build a vocabulary of a painted language. Each new work is made of marks derived from a vault of muscle memory, which I use to catalog different types of expression.

I'm interested in painting bodies that we have learned to digest comfortably and placing them next to figures that are interpreted as uncomfortable. There is a range of perceived beauty juxtaposed with ugliness in these paintings.

The painted bodies are inspired by human memory of sensation and emotion. They exist in a painted world for the viewer to assign behavior, senses, and characteristics as seen fit. I hope the viewer may question why particular painted bodies recall certain memories of sensations they've experienced.

Additionally, I've been exploring flora in my recent work. In the last year I've begun making works on paper of flora growing in my garden and incorporated some of the forms and colors of the plants and blooms into my paintings as well.