Arianna Mattson

I was born in Utah, but lived in California at the Edwards Air Force Base from the age of two to 12-years-old. It was during this time that I was introduced to art.

I would visit my grandmother in Crabtree, Oregon where we would gather rocks by the river in the mornings and transform them with paint into animals. We would then watch Bob Ross on television in the afternoon before I had to take a nap. I remember being fascinated about how much of the world could be conveyed through art.

At the age of 12 my parents divorced. My mother, sisters and I moved back to Utah where we started over. The following year my grandmother, my biggest art influence, passed away. I continued to sketch and used it as an emotional escape.

Sketching progressively stopped feeling like an emotional release. I had so much I wanted to say but it was no longer happening with pencil and paper. As a result, art in this form was locked away and I prepared to attend film school. Ultimately I realized I missed creating something that was personal and specifically mine. I missed the autonomy.

I purchased some paint and stretched canvas and found a new way to express my thoughts, but more importantly, my emotions in a way I never could before....