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Charlotte Mouquin

Charlotte Mouquin 's Artwork

Artist Statement

My paintings balance between figurative and abstract, between a found drawing and the layering of colors.  I begin a painting based on color and movement.  Once the official layers of color are in place I return to the surface using line to clearly define shapes within a composition.  Working with line I can begin to define space, shape and layers.  The line takes on a life of its own finding subjects within the moving shapes.  Once the lines are in place I return to filling in shapes with thin glazes of color.  This creates a glow within the painting, colors change by adding new layers of paint.  The painting takes on a musical quality as the composition falls into place.  Figures and animals appear in the work without pre-meditation.  A painting takes on a life of its own telling me where to take it.  Completion happens when all of the pieces are in balance, when the work has found a unity within it it becomes finished.
 
I studied fine art at Parsons School of Design, graduating in 2004.  I continued my studies at The School of the Museum of Fine Art / Tufts University where I achieved a Masters of Art in Teaching.  I taught high school art classes for two years at the Woodstock Union High School in Woodstock, VT.  While I was living in Vermont I also started a studio gallery for a short time called the Mouquin /  Ngoima Gallery in Bridgewater, VT.  I also worked at the Alliance for Visual Arts in Lebanon, NH.  Currently I am a graduate candidate for a Masters in Arts – Contemporary Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York.  I am also a member of the Flywheel Gallery, an artist run Co-op in Piermont, NY.
 
I have had struggles with my vision in the past.  I have had a fear of blindness.  As a child I was legally blind due to Marfans Syndrome and dislocated lenses in both eyes.  Thankfully the vision could be corrected with contacts and heavy glasses.  When I was nineteen years old and in my second year at Parsons, 2002, I had my first detached retina in my left eye.  I had a fake lens sewn into the eye.  Unfortunately the surgery was not successful and there were a myriad of complications following.  In 2007 I had a perforated retina in my right eye.  Currently I have glaucoma in both eyes and as a result have lost most of my peripheral vision in my left eye, which is filled with silicone oil.  Now that I consider myself monocular I pray that the vision will remain stable.  Despite these vision inhibitions I refuse to stop living my life or creating my art. 

Charlotte’s Vision History
I was born with Marfans Syndrome, which led to the dislocation of both lenses when I was three years old.  As I child I wore very thick bifocal lenses.  When I was in third grade I started wearing gas permeable contact lenses. 
When I was 19 I was informed that I had a detached retina in my left eye.  During the first surgery the doctors took out my dislocated lens and attached a fake lens, as well as putting in a gas bubble to keep the retina intact.  The results of this surgery seemed to go well for two weeks.  The next surgery the doctors put in a buckle around the eye to hold it together. 
Once this buckle was in place it lasted about a month.  Scar tissue built up in the eye and I then had another surgery to remove the scar tissue amd place a bigger buckle around the eye. 
Scar tissue kept returning to the eye and another surgery was had to remove it and place silicone oil in the eye.  A few months later there was a surgery to take out the oil.  This quickly led to a wrinkle in the retina and more scarring.  So the silicone oil was replaced again. 
Things seemed to be stable after about eight surgeries.  Then when I was 24 I noticed something wrong with the right eye.  There was a perforated retina.  The doctors put in a buckle and left the old lens in the eye not to disturb it as there had been so many problems with the left eye. 
After a month of being flat 80 percent of the day I could then put my right contact back in to be able to see enough to live my life. 
A year later going to a checkup I was told I had glaucoma and the pressure in the eye had done damage to the optic nerve in the left eye.  I have lost most of my peripheral vision in the left eye and have a permanently damaged pupil from all of the operations. 
I am expecting to be on eye drops for a very long time perhaps forever.  I consider myself basically blind in the left eye and monocular. 
Despite all of these vision issues it has not prevented me from continuing to make art. 

Charlotte.mouquin@gmail.com
845-480-1258