Featured Artist: Natalie Friedman

Painting, for me, has a special quality of being able to reach beyond pure representation. It is a medium through which one can try to capture the essence of a subject that can’t be seen by the naked eye. I bring my imagination to each piece and enhance the source image with my answers to the question of “what happens if…”. What happens if the light in this space is coming from multiple directions? What happens if this object is both in the foreground and the background? What happens if I use colors that don’t typically work together? What happens if I use everything I’ve just painted as an under painting and take a new direction? And so the adventure begins. There are no rules and no mistakes. Every day of painting is just another step towards answering the question. Some days are more successful than others, but all the day’s work compounds and creates layers of history. By intertwining elements of space, light, shape, and color, over time, each piece begins to evoke a dual sense of familiarity and wonder, a sense of the remembered and the imagined. Capturing emotions and experiences the way only painting can, illuminating the beauty within life’s small, often unnoticed moments. Website: https://www.nfoakland.com Instagram: @nfoakland Natalie Friedman’s work is available at The Compound Gallery in Emeryville, California.