Reflecting | 24" x 24" | Acrylic on canvas
Jaiden Haley is a multimedia artist from Spokane, WA. She received a BFA in Studio Art from Eastern Washington University in 2021. She is the current Operations Manager at Emerge CDA. Jaiden utilizes acrylic paint, textiles, and ceramic to create work that revolves around themes of childhood development and interconnectivity of memory.
"In high school I found an old SD card containing hundreds of photos from 2000-2005, all taken by my parents. While working towards my BFA, in the search of personal resources that could add more intimate meaning to the things I was creating, I started utilizing these photographs as references for my paintings, exploring my perceived childhood memories related to what was pictured. In my painting process I take one or two images and alter them physically through painting, layering, and combining to reflect my own emotional associations and congruencies to my adult life. In the last year I’ve expanded on this practice, compiling photographs that I’ve taken over the years and introducing them into my paintings alongside the older images in order to convey relationships between past and present. Outside of painting, I hold a similar sentiment for my three-dimensional and textile-based work. I try to make tangible, functional (but often impractical) objects to represent vague feelings or memories. At its core, to me making art has always been about problem solving. It’s about asking ‘How can I turn this idea or image or feeling into something tangible that will resonate with other people?’"