Daisy Patton

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Artist Statement

In Forgetting is so long, I collect abandoned family photographs, enlarge them to life-size, and paint over them to re-enliven these individuals removed from their space and time. Family photographs are sacred relics to their loved ones, but unmoored the images become absent. Anthropologist Michael Taussig states that defacing these objects forces a “shock into being;” suddenly we perceive them as present and piercing. By mixing painting with photography, I lengthen Roland Barthes’ “moment of death” into a loving act of remembrance. Not alive but not quite dead, each person’s reimagined portrait straddles the lines between memory, identity, and death.




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From Los Angeles, California, Daisy Patton‘s practice is focused on history, memory, and social commentary; her work explores the meaning and social conventions of families, little discussed or hidden histories, and what it is to be a person living in our contemporary world. Currently residing in western Massachusetts, Patton has a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Oklahoma with minors in History and Art History and an Honors degree. Her MFA is from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Tufts University, a multi-disciplinary program. Patton has completed artist residencies at Minerva Projects, Anderson Ranch, the Studios at MASS MoCA, RedLine Denver, and Eastside International in Los Angeles. She has exhibited in solo and group shows nationally, including her first museum solo at the CU Art Museum at the University of Colorado. K Contemporary represents Patton in Denver, CO, and J. Rinehart represents her in Seattle, WA.