An artist’s journey through grief is on the walls of the Plaskett Gallery in June.
Karen P. Nguyen’s exhibition, A Journey: Drawing Through Grief, is on display from June 1 to 30.
Nguyen is an emerging artist from New Westminster who has a bachelor’s degree from SFU and a diploma in fine arts from Langara College. In the fall, she’ll be pursuing her fine arts degree at Emily Carr University.
A press release notes that Nguyen’s background in psychology and career as a psychometrist exposed her to people living with various types of disorders and conditions. But it wasn’t until she faced loss in her own life that she began to explore art as a method of healing and personal development.
“These drawings were inspired by photos I took on my trip to Italy, during a time when I was overcoming grief and loss,” she says in an artist’s statement.
She used an image transferring technique to imprint her original image onto drawing paper and then further developed the work by adding charcoal, ink and pastel.
“This technique allowed my emotional state to fully take residency in the drawing,” she says. “The initial drawings were dark, fearful and intense. As I progressed, there was a shift; the drawings became clearer and calmer and in the end, the last drawings had a sense of both vibrancy and peace.”
The Plaskett Gallery is at Massey Theatre, 735 Eighth Ave. It’s open Tuesday to Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. or by appointment. See www.masseytheatre.com or call 604-517-5900 for information.
