Artist Biography
Emma Farrington is a figurative painter who works primarily in oil paint. She draws inspiration from her own struggles and emotions to create her work. In her hometown of Essex Junction, VT, Emma took lots of art classes in high school and won the Judge’s Choice Award for a piece in the Vermont Congressional Art Show. Currently, Emma is currently finishing her BFA in Studio Art with an Intermedia Concentration at Endicott College, where she is also a student athlete running for both Endicott’s Cross Country and Track & Field teams. She completed her semester-long internship student teaching at Glen Urquhart School, and will be continuing her education at MassArt in the fall to pursue a Masters in Art Education.
Thesis Abstract
Pitfalls of Daydreaming is an exploration of the relationship between oneself and the physical embodiment of one’s consciousness in the form of a Double. Essentially, it is an investigation into the concept of Self. In my paintings, the figures are mirrored and interacting in various ways throughout the different images. It is left up to the viewer to decide which is the ‘real person’ and which is the Double. Each composition encapsulates the paradox of being self-conscious, both the suffering that accompanies self awareness and the bliss of imagination. Using highly saturated colors and a mirrored landscape, a surrealist utopia is created within the natural world, turning it into the unnatural world. The idealist atmosphere in The Kiss and The Star is a reflection of the tendency to hide from the truths of one’s darker side and strive for a life without pain, without suffering. In the second two images, The Creation and Individuation, the colors used become darker and the figures interact in a more direct way, conveying the knowledge of self that comes from the darkness of introspection.