Featured Artist Maya Kuvaja

Maine artist Maya Kuvaja’s stirring mixed media art draws the viewer into a dreamlike world. Visit her website to view more of her work.

 

 

In my studio in the woods of western Maine, I create mixed media paintings that blend maps, science, nature, industry and culture.

 

 

My process incorporates collage, dry media drawing, image transfer, acrylic and oil paint using my own unique methods developed over years of studio practice.

 

 

In these paintings, varied layered images are combined and recontextualized to create new and mysterious narratives.

 

 

I am particularly interested in visual storytelling, but I intentionally leave the stories open to the viewer’s own interpretations.

 

 

Working in a studio so close to nature has inspired art that investigates the relationship between humans and the natural world. In my Passage series, animals populate dreamlike worlds with man-made, industrial elements and architecture.

 

 

This body of work, for which I received a Maine Arts Commission grant, was created in part to commemorate the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and to examine, on an intuitive level, the effects of human industry on other species.

 

 

My current body of work is a more inwardly focused contemplation. Images derived from dreams and memories are layered together to create poetic narratives of personal histories.

 

 

Maps, with their beautiful complex lines and patterns, create the foundation for collages. Both physical and spiritual journeys are symbolically represented. My early memories from my childhood in southern coastal Maine are often depicted in these works.

 

 

It was there that my earliest exploration of art and nature took place. The vast expanse of ocean, the energy of nature and the dark presence of the great textile mills filled my dreams and stirred my artistic creativity.

 

 

After earning my art degree from Maine College of Art in the vibrant small coastal city of Portland, I moved to western Maine where I now live and create artwork. My paintings are frequently exhibited in galleries, colleges, and art centers in New England and are in many private collections.

 

Artist Maya Kuvaja invites you to follow her on Facebook.

 

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