Bibliography

EJ Ward is an artist based in the state of Georgia in the USA. In 2023, she started her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Georgia Southern University where she developed her drive for painting. As she gained more experience, painting became her primary focus. Through the medium. She plays on the connection of landscapes around her with the subject's memories and nostalgia. Recently, EJ has participated in the Undergraduate Juried Exhibition at the Betty Ford Sanders Gallery at Georgia. She also is an art assistant working on art projects including: murals, plastering walls with texture, and foe-finishing with acrylic paint.

Statement

Throughout life, humans collect memories from interactions, experiences and circumstances they have experienced. For all experiences, there is always a location where the experience is happening. One may not do anything without a place to do something. The environment can create a mood and a landmark one may remember for the rest of their life. Memories tie close with the environment. When viewing or remembering a place or environment, it leads people into the thoughts of past memories taken at the same or similar place. Looking at the environment can also remind a person what exact thoughts and senses they were feeling at the time as well.My body of work displays the interactions between landscapes and nostalgia. Nostalgia is a bittersweet sentiment for longing of the past which is often triggered by viewing or remembering a location. One may not be able to control nostalgia from happening. In my work, “So Far Away” is a scene taken from a picture I have taken of a landscape from Oregon. As I was going through my photos, I looked at an image that I took there and started to remember my friend that I visited there. Through just one look of the photo, it made me want to travel back and be present in the location one more time.The references to my work consist of my personal photography I have taken during my life. I recreate them into painting through landscapes like “I’ll be Home Soon” and “What I Should Have Done”. Other landscapes I have done are also photographs taken by me formatted in a more abstract composition and collage type form like “Past Visions in New Journeys” and “Feels Like I’m Lost”. The role collages play includes the building and combining together of many moments; memories being combined to create a bigger picture of an overarching theme. I use the collage technique to compose and visually build my painting. With painting, it helps add a more personal story which adds expression, atmosphere and emotion. Collages images build up one another and work together to create various feelings and emotions.Although I have my own personal experiences, my experiences are not the main focus on what I want people to see. My paintings are intended to help viewers to think about their own personal memories which may bring them nostalgia. The unique thing about nostalgia is that a person did not have to have been there before in their life to feel it. Nostalgia can come from everywhere and anytime.