The Nature of an
Anxious Mind
By: Madison Ethreo
Artist Statement
In this body of work, I am exploring the chaos of an anxious mind in natural or abstract scenes to show the disconnection and conflict created by the inner self-talk in my head. Anxiety at its worst can feel like the world is on my shoulders, my body is on fire, and I even feel like I am drowning or my skin is crawling. Anxiety stems from the mind but is also a physical experience that does not have a tangible form. Due to this, it can be challenging to gauge the objectiveness of these feelings, so I am trying to put them into visual representations through painting and drawing. I view my works as visual poetry that I use to communicate these abstract experiences.
My work is pulled from the memory of personal experiences in nature that stick with me, and these natural spaces are where I feel the most centered. Within my work as a whole I combine abstraction, naturalistic rendering, expressive mark-making, and unnatural color choices. The abstraction and color choices indicate a reflection of the past where my recollection is fuzzy or it is an expression of that internal voice consuming me. I utilize a bright, vivid blend of unnatural colors for an emotional quality that ultimately gives my pieces a dreamy, mystical effect that is a manifestation of my imagination. As I build up the composition on a canvas, in between
layers, I use paint pens to create sporadic marks all over the surface to express the noise within my head that takes me out of the present moment. Then I go back in with more controlled meditative lines around the sporadic lines as an act of centering myself and processing the layers of the composition. I feel so lost in the spirals of my mind that the lines help me find comfort in the unknown aspects of life.
— Madison
The Nature of Anxiety Pt 2
Acrylic paint on canvas, chalk pastel, and paint markers.
36 x 48 in. (outer paintings) and 48 x 48 in. (central painting)
2023
These intense experiences are depicted within natural settings warped by the chaos within my mind. Acrylic paint and chalk pastel on the canvas are layered to create depth within the composition, and acrylic paint pens are used as final details to add to the physical, visceral nature of these paintings.
The Natural Self
Water based markers and chalk pastel on hot press paper.
22 x 36
2023
In the past, I created more naturalistic depictions of landscapes. Now, I combine the natural world with my internal world by using chalk pastel medium for a loose, expressive quality and water-based markers to create my meditative lines in the background. These drawings are a reflection of my past self as I move forward in this new exploration.
