Aiden de Vin
University of British Columbia Okanagan
As a painter I use mark making to explore memories and emotions associated with place. The gestural brushstrokes in my paintings aim to represent memories of specific people, conversations and feelings. The architectural spaces in the paintings reference various nooks and corners from my home environment.
Movement is a key feature in these paintings as our emotions and memories can live within domestic spaces. Memories also accumulate within domestic spaces, each building upon another in the same way that brushstrokes and colour build layers and atmosphere in a painting.
For example, "Mascara in my eye. Crying cause I'm pretty" references mundane moments of getting ready intertwined with heartbreak and loss as each was felt within the same walls.
Paint provides me with a way to explore how memories both build and break down the spaces in which we exist.
1. "I always have to load the dishwasher. No you don’t." (2019)
5x4ft acrylic on canvas
2. "My mug says do what you love, but I don’t like cleaning the bathroom." (2020) 5x4ft acrylic on canvas
3. "Mascara in my eye. Crying cause I’m pretty." (2020)
5x4ft acrylic on canvas
4. "OMG this quiz says he defs likes you." (2019)
5x4ft acrylic on canvas
5. "Birds woke me up this morning outside my window" (2020)
3x4ft acrylic on canvas
