Mariah Majakey

I became interested in generalized fine art in high school, but doubted to consider it as a serious walk of life. When I first tried painting in 2015, I was interested in the human body juxtaposed against natural landscapes. Having been brought up in West Virginia, a connection is shared between Appalachian artists and the grounding influence of nature. I wanted to emphasize the relationship between our natural environment and femininity. After jumping around undergraduate programs, and while strengthening the confidence to self-express through visual art, I experimented with different mediums and eventually obtained a BFA in painting from WVU’s College of Creative Arts. Through a community of supportive visual artists and mentors in my college town of Morgantown, West Virginia, I’ve so far presented paintings in literary journals, art salons, regional exhibitions, and city art walks.

In my ongoing series of work, I call upon the fleeting moments we each hang onto while treading water in an “ocean” that is the human experience: the socialized notion that our worthiness is inherently based on our maximization of productivity. We all look forward to the very few grounded moments of intimacy in between the fast, unrelenting pace of life, especially in recent generations. While therapeutic and meditative practices are rather new within cultures of the western hemisphere, most of our values look forward to these very few grounded moments in between the hustle and bustle of maximizing our financial worth. Through surrealistically painted compositions of figures interacting with either themselves or the surrounding atmosphere, I intend for a narration to be communicated; I call upon nostalgic fleeting memories within our surrounding environments, whether it be meditating in nature or a half-memory of a moment with a friend in a grocery store. How have we lost touch with natural sensations through time?

Get in touch with Mariah via Instagram: majakeykstudio