Arist Bio
Bren Vaughn is an American artist using prismatic colors and anonymized perspectives to explore the experience of being a new immigrant in Canada. Her series Cityscapes is a reflection on the feelings of leaving political instability and finding home in the ordinary details of a new city.
As a very young student attending a public magnet school for the arts, Bren won multiple Scholastic gold keys, a YoungArts title, and the Congressional Art Competition. Bren attributes her vibrant painting style to her early mentor, Jeanne Pellegrino. Bren went on to pursue science, ultimately obtaining a doctorate in engineering. The integration of Bren’s love of science and formal art training can be seen through the exactness of the drawings in her paintings and close observations of color.
Artist Statement
This body of work digests the experience of being a new immigrant. These pieces use an anonymized first person perspective to share exploring Canada with fresh eyes.
The endless stream of new and intriguing shapes and colors in the everyday scenes of cities serves as an inspiration for my art. This work utilizes brightly colored underpainting and high contrast to stand in for both lights and sounds. This use of underpainting and contrast can be visualized in Traffic Mirror at High Park. The overhead lights bounce off the dark subway station tiles and are depicted by allowing the raw canvas underpainting to show between the darker paint layered on top.
This body of work is continuing in its current form. In progress works include a nighttime view of Toronto and a manhole cover hidden in bright green grass.