Alana Garrigues
My art reawakens comfort that comes from our human relationship with trees. As I paint, overlapping stories of human memory and arboreal lifetimes pour out through my brush.
ALANA GARRIGUES | Holden, Massachusetts, USA
Precedented II
23.25 x 24”, acrylic ink, chalk pastel on reclaimed wood
$2895
Tough Nut
22 x 22.5”, acrylic ink, chalk, charcoal on Arches 640 gsm
$2495
As Big As I Get?
37.5 x 38”, acrylic ink, gesso bas relief, assorted mixed media on reclaimed plywood
$3995
Artist Statement // Our very language is rooted in the forest. Our arms are limbs; our head is crown; our family histories are roots. As trees breathe out, we breathe in. On paper and on reclaimed surfaces, I reintroduce people to some of our oldest relatives and create a sense of home.
My art reawakens comfort that comes from our human relationship with trees. As I paint, overlapping stories of human memory and arboreal lifetimes pour out through my brush. I begin from a white surface on white paper or reclaimed wood, and paint until I recognize sanctuary, reverence, wood. Then I share, and welcome viewers home.
I invite you to dwell, and to work, in peace.
Bio // Alana Garrigues (b. 1979, Portland, Oregon, she/they) is a Massachusetts-based intuitive, community-taught artist whose work invites reverence and play.
Dancing forever on the tightrope of artistry and poetry, visual and literary, seen and unseen, observation and activism, there is often a sense of tension and story in the work. Past and future. Resolved and undone. What if? and Why for? It is in this both/and that she feels the work… and herself… come alive.
She is particularly in love with capturing the wisdom and awe she feels from trees, possibility, and the natural world, and in carrying on conversations about the magic of engaging in creativity. In making the work, she has found art capable of alchemizing worry into wonder and agency, and reawakening a childlike sense of awe.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
Juniper Rag is drawn to artists who create more than imagery, we love artwork that contributes to creative sanctuaries. Alana’s work is rooted in a shared language with the natural world, of the bias of aged old trees, crowns, roots and she brings that lineage forward with reverence and urgency. Working on paper and reclaimed wood, she builds quiet, layered spaces that feel discovered rather than purposely constructed.
We feel the tension in her practice through poetry and her activism, a softness and strength in her washes and pastel color choices. That tension though, gives the work a pulse. Her trees are not just illustrations, they are reminders. They hold memory. They hold witness to our natural surroundings and the unstable environment around all of us.
Alana invites us to dwell differently. To work differently. To breathe differently.
In a culture hungry for grounding and meaning, her paintings offer both comfort and agency — transforming worry into wonder and walls into places of return.
—Juniper Rag