Contemporary Watercolor Artist
BIOGRAPHY
Kerry Hugins is a contemporary watercolour artist based in Austin, TX. Her work explores a variety of themes, including Panpsychism, expanded consciousness, complex emotions, solitude, growing up as a foreign kid, ADHD, motherhood, children, and breaking free from the constraints of the past and future. Hugins’ use of watercolour enables her to create a wide range of textures and shades, from bold and vivid to soft and subtle, as she delves deep into the realms of memory and color. Visually, Hugins’ art is influenced by her experiences living overseas, as well as by colour field painting and contemporary art. Her skillful use of color and form creates a sense of depth and movement within her pieces. Kerry has been involved in the arts her entire life. Her recent work centers around the pursuit of grasping and tracking time, preserving our dark skies, and observing rare wildflowers as they bloom and paint. Essentially, Hugins’ work delves into the realms of memory and color, primarily through the medium of watercolour.
Hugins’ passion for exploration is reflected in her life’s journey as well. As the daughter of an American Diplomat, she spent her formative years living in different parts of the world, immersing herself in new cultures and experiences; resulting in her cultural disassociation. Hugins has exhibited in numerous group shows across the United States and completed a residency at El Sur in Mexico City. She earned her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
more links: https://www.instagram.com/kerry_hugins/
Artist Statement
My paintings are a portal of color, which remind you of the impermanence of life, a Memento Vivre; “remember to live.”
I am Hyperphantasiac, rendering entire worlds in my imagination and have waking dreams. In all three of my series—the grids, the wildflowers, and the newer dark sky paintings—I explore intimacy of time, memory and light, as well as concerns for climate and motherhood. I am neurodivergent and also time blind. I was raised moving around the world, instilling in me a strong cultural disassociation. Because I grew up in different countries, I absorbed multiple cultural identities into my core identity; but as anyone who has ever had a foreign child in class knows, that child never fully assimilates; always the foreigner. I later lived for a year at an Ashram, for my integration of realities.
The colors are collected from my life, for example in my painting Agents of Creation, the colors were present in the flower I watched grow and meditated with, and the colors reminded me of pairings I would see in Mexico City in the 80’s as a child. I am a mother in constant motion. Painting in the grid allows me to track time and create that delicate space in between this moment and the next event. Grids are so prevalent in our daily lives, in the apps that we use constantly, our shared information in grids, this format in contemporary.
Paintings of wildflowers mostly grown by my hand are my addition to the tradition of portals for devotion, Panpsychism and the exploration fluid time. I always think of the line from Nabokov “flowers reflect the stars” when I sit with them and transmute their journey into a painting. A flower is giving a lesson about the fragility of life. These painting are exploring Critical Plant Studies- we live in the Earth’s atmosphere, which though 26 miles tall, we really live in the space of 6 miles up from the sea level. We are so connected, I want my garden to be useful as possible in becoming a pantry for the migratory and local pollinators and back yard animals.
The darkness is important for our mutual sense of well being, the absence of light helps all living things thrive and have access to the magnificent expansive night sky. I have a theory that the expanding universe is the rapidly expanding consciousness on planets all over the universe.
Events that happened years ago can be more on my mind than what is going to happen tomorrow. Exploring the existential thoughts around my role a a mother, person and artist using colors to evoke the sensory agregates. My meditations have shown me that my steps I take in making art is my contribution to the greater consciousness we share. I use an alchemy in my work, I use the activism, a proactive relaxation of the used, exploited joys of being alive, I want to celebrate the joy, the memento vivere.
