Email: vamonsell@gmail.com
Website: www.virginiamonsellart.com
Member of the Guild Since (year) * 2017
Media/Craft *Oil Painting
Virginia lives and paints in her hometown of Portland, Maine. Virginia’s first love for art came in the form of fashion. She was fascinated by self-expression through clothing, the power of fabric on skin, and the dynamism of form. As a child she would create hand drawn fashion magazines, page by page. She would draw the models and their clothes, but also write articles and advertisements, all meticulously planned and arranged. Little did she know that this hobby would be the catalyst of her art making and eventually influence her artistic expression well into adulthood.
Enjoying both artistic and technical academics, Virginia naturally found interest in an architecture class in high school. After high school, she completed the Architectural and Engineering Design Program at Southern Maine Community College where she focused on residential and commercial architectural and engineering design, interior design, and technical illustration. Virginia continued her college education at the University of Southern Maine where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art with concentrations in painting, sculpture, art education, and women’s gender studies.
Virginia has always strived to find ways to incorporate her creativity in her life by finding work that kept her involved in art and learning. She worked in carpentry, picture framing, house painting, sales and design consulting of furniture, substitute teaching, worked for interior designers and did freelance architectural drafting.
A serious struggle with health and chronic pain lead Virginia down a challenging path and art became her only true catharsis. Ironically, these health issues opened the door to self-employment and have inspired her to keep creating for herself and others. Her strong love for art and learning keep her coming back to the studio, day after day. Virginia has always described herself as ‘an outsider’ and believes art to be beneficial in numerous ways including therapeutic healing, helping her connect with others, giving her an audible voice, and reminding her that there are many different and completely valid ways to be in the world.
Her inspiration comes from her curiosity and fascination with nature, desire, individualism, feminism, humanism, fashion, architecture, pain, and the unknown. Experiencing surrealism, art nuevo, and the work of artists such as Edward Hopper, Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt, Marina Abramovic, Vivienne Westwood, Betsy Johnson, Ayn Rand, Ann Hardy, Frank Gehry, H.R. Giger, Troy Brooks, Michael Parks, Salvador Dali, Balthus, and many others have provoked her imagination and motivated her to keep pushing herself as an artist.
Moving forward, Virginia hopes to continue on her path of knowledge and creativity in order to better herself, her art, and her community. She hopes to improve her networking and activism in art, and to one day open a community art space and gallery that is welcoming to all.