Inside Out - Nerissa Layton
Exhibition runs: August 15 – Sept 9, 2023
Opening reception: Friday August 18. 6-8pm
Artist Talk: Sunday September 27. 4:30-5:30pm
"In this collection of multi media paintings are unexpected, cherished influences of nature inspired by my Native and spiritual connection with it.
A coinciding transformation happened after I received "validation" in the form of my status card last fall.
A more contemporary Native based style began to weave it's way from my heart (inside) to my art (outside).
I came out as an Interior Salish Native, Lytton band.
I embraced my ancestral history free of cultural appropriation.
Beings seemingly flowed out of the ether through each brushstroke. They revealed themselves as if I was their vessel to allow their world to come out through my own art.
The combination of getting my status and an unfortunate flood inside my own creative space was a turning point for my art style. I was invited to join a beauty studio while my place was under flood reno. A sacred art space inside Tyrrell Clarke's studio. The result of these two life changes is that my art opened up, as I had with accepting support. I felt more of a balance and bond to creating art. My style evolved as I felt closer to my Interior Salish roots and with the opportunity to create in a space conducive to this. My visual voice flourished.
The motion of painting intuitively guides me with no preconceived beginning or end. No pre drawing, no visual subject at hand. As simple as moving paint around allowing me to share my imaginative expression from inside myself as an artist onto tangible canvas with paint.
My heart and art to you from a contemporary Native outsider artist."
- Nerissa Layton, Layton Art