Painting tells us what words cannot.

Painting is the charting of a nonverbal, emotional inner topography, an attempt to make something known that has never been fully spoken. I paint to show you an ordinary moment in which perception and emotion collide to create an experience that exists outside of language.

I am drawn to natural scenes and the resilience and frenzy of plants and landscapes, a constantly changing and never-still life. In my work I explore tension and conflict through contrast - between light and shadow, bright pigment and lush neutrals, organic foliage and crisp lines. In the landscape around me I find the visual vocabulary to describe what it’s like to find peace and chaos in the same place.

Abby Alexanian (she/they) is a self-taught artist living and working in Western Massachusetts.