Montina Hussey

Ancestral Overlap


Our experience of reality is filled with fundamental overlaps. Repressed, esoteric layers are constipated with information that denotes trauma that can puncture the present moment.  In the realms of repression lies a fabric of historical wounds and experience. Through my artwork, I have opened up a dialogue with ancestral memories and energies, addressing the long-term effects of trauma and how they affect subsequent generations. Through the alchemy of paint, I rectify cellular and metaphysical memory, by translating photographs and film stills of my grandparents from the 1920s. These paintings in acrylic and oil fluctuate equally between figuration and abstraction, blurring facts and crystallizing detail. I am interested in the prick of intensity I feel about these archives of generations past, and this has resulted in a chaotic, anxious, and cathartic release through painted forms. I hold the belief that we can call up the past and direct it into a healing experience; painting allows me to transport these energies. I think we can reach our potential of being self-actualized figures of light by facing our ancient darkness and the weight of regressed past life, in the hope of creating a clearer path for future generations.

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