—  Eileen Murray  —

Artist Statement

My work is an inquiry into domestic space using the language of  painting and ceramics. What makes a house a home? How does one  evoke a sense of history, memory, legacy, and narrative? My paintings  and ceramics flirt with the line between fine art and decoration, using  both trending and vintage colours, patterns, and objects that evoke the  quotidian, the nostalgic, and the rituals held within domestic space.    

I am interested in contemporary depictions of the home found in  advertising, television, and social media. Consumer culture sells the  image of a home as a place of perfect harmony and family life where  happy memories and boundless imagination are promised through the  designer goods and curated spaces that evoke feelings of nostalgia,  vintage simplicity and nostalgic elegance. My paintings play with the  unattainability of these states by moving between representation and  abstraction, expressing oppositions such as Beauty and ugliness;  disruption and continuity; and finally through the research of both  contemporary and historical paintings. 

My most recent body of work is a series of large paintings depicting still life floral arrangements. Drawing on the long history of still life, these  works continue to explore notions of excess, while also reflecting on the  transience of life. Working through the COVID pandemic, these works  have moved from reflections of personal loss to a pervasive experience  of collective grief, anxiety, and transformation.  

Throughout my work there is a fascination with representations of  domesticity, and how these representations dovetail with notions of  gender and femininity. I amplify these connections using a visual  language that evokes the ethos of the baroque when theatricality,  bravado, and material excess conveyed the emotion and movement of  the domestic and the palatial.

M. Eileen Murray