Tisha Edwards

Beauty gives pleasure to the senses; it is a particular grace, ornament, or excellence that raises the mind and spirit. My work is about a classic beauty with all that is perfect and good, with a darker underbelly. Within these placid individuals with awkward, contorted, combined, and twisted bodies, there is the reality of surprise. The duality of nature, that I express in visions of imagined landscapes of human and animal forms.

My work is intuitive. Morphing into something that isn’t always intended. My process is one of layering, adding and subtracting until I find the right balance of image, space, and environment. My paintings are depictions of a surreal world that provides a stage for the viewer. I do not think a painting into being; it most often just shows up, forming itself onto the canvas. I let my images suggest themselves; I do not dwell on the placement of things too much and let them find their own way within the painting.

Painting has become my private language. Everyone gets something different from these images, depending on their connections. These connections could be environmental, physical, or mental. I rely on the viewers’ intuition to interpret the imagery, thereby providing both the challenge and opportunity to each individual to translate my visual language from their own unique perspective. With a surrealistic sensibility, what I want most is to impart to the viewer a sense of wonder and strangeness. My work is meant to be romantic, comical, beautiful, tragic, and entertaining.