Mind Bubble Collage

Nerissa Balland is visual artist who creates abstract paintings and drawings in a variety of sizes and mixed media. She is extremely fascinated with the many levels of communication between the viewer and the piece, the artist and the work, and the artist to the viewer. In addition, Nerissa has been particularly interested in art as a means of communication throughout the various stages of her life. Nerissa has had a strong desire to create since childhood. During her formal education, she fought to hold on to the innocence behind the creative process in order to maintain a balance of technique and “the unlearned.” Extensively trained at Pratt Institute, Nerissa received a Master of Fine Arts in painting. She spent the last 18 years working in marketing, advertising, design, and events. Currently, Nerissa works full-time as a Contemporary Artist and develops her artistic communication in her current bodies of work deemed, "Protection Series and Empath Series.” The Protection Series explores the definition of protection and how we define and experience it spiritually, emotionally, physically and metaphorically. She examines the universal symbols of the evil eye, the third eye, and the symbolic nature of the hand of God (Hamsa). The Empath Series is a spin off of her Protection Series. Here she is most interested in creating characters from the Hamsa portraits. The portraits act less as protection symbols and serve more as visual symbols that are inspired from the 5 books of the Torah/ Old Testament . It is within each piece that Nerissa addresses themes and test them from the perspective of an Empath.