e sse nt i al arts Photograph by Lois Bielefeld
by Chris Gargan “I am never removed from this viewpoint,” Ariana Vaeth says about painting herself as a painter. She is acutely aware of her need to include images of herself in her paintings, what she describes as a “pungent place,” a constant reassurance of her identity and place as a Black woman painter. She possesses a keen consciousness of the role people play in her work; friends, companions, and lovers “lend themselves” to her for the creation of her mythologies of human interaction in dense, decorative, and exquisitely defined space. Ariana is at the nearest end of the continuum of artists who have made their own lives and experiences the focal point of their visual expression. Just as Raphael relentlessly inserted himself into narratives of theological debate or imagined schools of philosophy, as Vermeer carefully recreated the 34 | m a d i s o n e s s e n t i a l s
Photograph provided by Hawthorn Contemporary, Walkers Point, Milwaukee
Ariana
