Hi, I'm Serena...
I live in beautiful cottage country a few hours north of Toronto, Canada. I share my home with my husband and two boys, along with our cat Beans and dog Copper. Where I live, we experience the glory of all 4 seasons, and whatever the weather, I spend a lot of time outdoors. The beauty of the Canadian landscape always finds its way into my pieces, whether through color or subtle references to nature.
But the stories that I focus on most are those of women. My pieces honor our stories, and also challenge long held stereotypes of beauty, aging and femininity.
Sometimes I'm asked why that I create figure paintings.
There are a lot of reasons, but a few go especially deep. If you'd like to know more about my full story - keep reading and I'll share a little more of the intimate parts of my journey.
get to know me a little more...
I've been creating since I was a child and began to really take art seriously in high-school. I even had my own business as a mural artist, but nothing I have created has been as important to me as creating the pieces that I do now.
Growing up I received many subtle and not so subtle messages that I interpreted as meaning that my value was less than others, not only as a child, but especially as a girl.
This thinking was the perfect storm for a quiet young girl who wanted to please to find herself the victim of varying abuses. I doubted my own experiences and even when I could acknowledge them, I didn't think that they truly mattered.
...when I finally realized
that I was the one that needed to take care of my own emotional, physical and mental health, I found myself a single mom, and working odd jobs in order to support myself and my boys. Though my art career had been put on the back burner for years, I knew that I needed it back in my life.
So with a couple of new paintings, some samples of my older work, and my story, I applied to have a solo show. A part of me needed a way to tell my story and painting was the way that I knew how to do so.
Each painting in my show titled "Passages" told a part of my journey through a difficult time in my life and out the other side to healing. Though scary and vulnerable, people began to tell me how they could relate to the art I had created. It had touched their hearts and they felt less alone.
I knew then that I had to add my voice to the ever-growing group of women telling our experiences.
"Our strength is our beauty"
This is why telling our stories as women is so important to me.
I want to make sure that young girls believe in themselves and aren't afraid to let their voices be heard.
I want midlife women to know that the journey they have travelled and all that they have gone through has made them strong, and that this strength is their beauty!
And I want older women to value the lines on their skin as badges of honor and their silver hair as glorious crowns to wear proudly.
I need to paint stories that matter. This is why I create art to inspire and uplift women!