2024 Senior Exhibition Artists

Tia Arce

Concentration: Art + Design: Painting

About Tia Arce

Tia Arce is a Painting major pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Their work explores identity through curated still-life paintings, using their own collection of items to show how the objects we keep hold memories.

Statement

My work explores the connection between objects and memory. More specifically, how objects keep memories alive and how they can shape our perception of our own life. In creating my paintings, I carefully select objects that work well compositionally while maintaining the feeling of comfort and nostalgia. My work strives to relate to the audience's personal feelings about the items in their life they hold dear through items of my own. The careful placement and attention to detail further represents the feelings of intimacy and care in the work and these memories. I use color as an important indicator for feeling as it relates to each piece. Color works as a way to compliment each object and makes them stand out and perform uniquely as their own. Each piece serves as a time capsule that encompasses how it feels to hold onto even the most miniscule memory.

Painting allows me to create work that uses directional light and stark shadows. This produces the depth and dramatic highlights I look for in order to create a sense of great detail and intricacy. I look for detail in my work because it is what grants me the ability to portray my objects in the most accurate way. I seek inspiration from nature and the shapes that exist within insect bodies and contrast the organic objects with man-made ones. I find that the contrast between the color in insects with the artificial color of manufactured items fully portrays the connections between life and the objects we bring along with us.