My paintings seek to appreciate the quiet beauty in the everyday visual experiences of life. Noticing that beauty can have a huge impact on one’s identity.

I choose to paint the products of American culture in order to depict the significance the things we come across every day have on our identity formation. The things we eat, the things we wear, the places we choose to live, the things we choose to spend our time doing—these all speak volumes about our individual identities and values.

I use paint because paintings take the world and exaggerate its vibrancies, its subtleties, its failings. Paint, and the way I choose to use it, fails to capture the world exactly the way it appears in “real life,” or the way it appears through the lens of a camera. Its failure, for me, is actually its most endearing quality. Its imperfections speak to the imperfection of human life and the choices we make. Paint, like the choices we make, can be manipulated, colored to be seen a certain way or to hide certain things. But it also endures. And that’s what I love about both paint and about how painting can depict the beauty in everyday life: it is a timeless representation of what it means to be human.

                                                                                                Hallie McKnight