Artist Talk: And Still, In Color with Carren McNeal

What happens when becoming is no longer about surviving, but about learning how to thrive?

This collection is a visual journal of that question.

These paintings carry pieces of Memphis and Brooklyn, childhood and womanhood, music and memory, faith and imagination. They hold stories passed down by people who loved me and wanted the best for me, and the stories I have learned to create for myself from the lessons they left behind.

Somewhere in these paintings, you may see the child who first needed to create: uninhibited, curious, reaching instinctively for color and warmth. You may also see the woman-child who is learning, questioning, unlearning, remembering. And then the lines change. The strokes become more intentional. The voice becomes clearer.

Not perfect.

Honest.

These works contain conversations with people I love, with complete strangers, with my students, with my ancestors, with God, and with myself. They contain things I've heard, things I've witnessed, things I've survived, things I've imagined, and things I am finally allowing myself to receive.

The brightness is intentional.

The color is not an escape from difficult things. It is evidence that difficult things are not the whole story.

I am interested in what exists on the other side of survival: joy, tenderness, imagination, music, warmth, possibility, rest, abundance, and the freedom to become without apology.

This work is not about arriving at a final version of myself.

It is about recognizing her.

The honest becoming.

The true self.

Still unfolding.

Please join us for Carren's Artist Talk to engage, connect and unfold..

The Exhibition will be on view through October.

Light refreshments will be served.