Monica Carroll

I paint to explore and to question; it is a language for me. While working with my hands, conjuring color, line and form, the mind calms, the heart rate slows, thoughts become more coherent. When I take an idea out for a walk on a piece of paper or canvas, I am often surprised by the result. I always gain a new perspective. Landscape, the environment, family, wonder, the act of painting, the notion of the “treasured” object, water and time are all themes that appear in my work in various ways. I am a fish out of water in our digitally saturated world. The more instantaneous the making and sharing of an image becomes today with Iphones, the more I wish to retreat to making slow perceptual paintings or methodical, meditative drawings, ignoring the digital language that surrounds me. But that is not a welcome path, so how do I employ that language, alongside painting, to explore the questions that interest me? I am constantly searching for my definition of “What is a painting, now?”