For Venice artist Emily Van Horn, her paintings represent the distillation of accumulated experiences and how they’ve been instinctively contained and translated.
She describes each piece as beginning as a journal entry using paint instead of words.
Locals will be able to enjoy her latest works beginning this Sunday, Oct. 25 when she exhibits her works at Upper West restaurant at 3321 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica.
An opening reception, which is free and open to the public, will be held from 4 pm to 7 pm Sunday. The works will stay on the restaurant’s walls for about three to four months.
In recent years Van Horn has been a part of various group shows and events in Santa Monica and Venice, include the Venice Art Walk, Venice ArtBlock and various other local exhibitions.
Van Horn runs a private practice of energy healing, something she has done since 1993.
She says she got into painting because she was always around other artists. She says she also went to a lot of museums.
“I was an appreciator of art,” says Van Horn, who was born and grew up in Long Beach.
Van Horn remembers how she got into painting “almost like an accident.”
“I kind of just fell into it,” she says.
She recalls when she took a collage class at a community college for fun, she incorporated what she learned into her painting.
With the support of her professor, she was propelled forward into improving her art.
Inspiration for Van Horn is not typical; to her, it is a “mystery, the creative process.”
Color, line, shape, and collage now become the vehicle for creating a visual map of where she’s been and where she wants to go, she says.
Painting is an “internal process” for Van Horn; she always paints works with an intention of having them be uplifting to the viewer.
Despite that, a healing quality sinks into her work because she works in the energy healing field, which leads to Van Horn having a unique view of her own artistic process.
Her enjoyment of painting and her style is a part of her “fascination with color.”
Van Horn’s love of color, combined with her background of appreciation of art, museums, and collage, makes for an abstract style.
She acknowledges the notion, adding: “not everything you create is something you fall in love with or are drawn to aesthetically; what you create is what needs to come out.”
Her advice to all artists who need motivation and guidance is simple yet profound.
“Follow your heart; follow your intuition,” she says. “Don’t listen to others. Keep going, keep creating.”
To keep in contact with Emily Van Horn, visit her website at www.emilyvanhorn.com. For more information on Upper West, visit theupperwest.com.
