Remember the Fun
Nolan C.
Acrylic on canvas
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My work explores loss and erasure – my recent collection is a series of paintings and installations called “Memory Loss,” which first began as an exploration of my grandfather’s dementia. For “Remember the Fun” it was important for me to capture the purest moments as a teen. I attend a rigorous high school and lately I can feel the slipping of my innocence and childhood being replaced by news and expectations of the outside world. I wanted this painting large-scale using acrylic on canvas so that I could capture brighter tones and patterns. It takes up half my wall and highlights my friends and I doing what we do best – chilling in the bliss and glow of happiness, lost in the nothingness of a joke, wishing this could go on forever. I’ve learned from my grandfather’s dementia that these are the memories one will cherish over career highlights, or academic pressures.
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It means freedom, play, and peaceful protest. I know all of these things because my father and stepmother were troubled – I was told I was not creative or capable. But as I escaped that situation, creativity became a voice for me. It saved me and will remain my passion.
