Megan Schaugaard

One of my professors moved to the United States from China when he was a child. He had trouble learning the language and being in a place he didn't understand. He told us it was only after he took a visit to an art museum in his new country that he found that he did understand after all. As humans, we are all connected in our humanness. Visually we can understand some things that are inexpressible through words. Here is a feeble attempt to translate my work into words:

Everything in this life will eventually wear out, break, or fall apart from being used, forced, or aged. I believe there is something beautiful, even magical, in that. When all the physical has withered away, what is left? What is the measure of the experience? What would youth be without aging? Where would joy be without the pain? And hope without despair? Life’s oppositions support the value of their counterparts–without one, the opposite ceases to exist, and the value also diminishes with it. 

I explore these themes in my work by painting and drawing people, places, and things in the realism style in worn or broken settings. I focus on the beauty these hold in an interplay of opposites in my technique: smooth and rough textures, the portrayal of worn and new, lights against darks, and shimmer amongst muted colors in cooperation to create a scene for the viewer to contemplate: What holds real value and why?

Resilience. Finding meaning in all things. Gradually, building the foundation that gets me through everything imaginable. That's what I am. It's what I was yesterday, but I didn't know it. I was afraid. It hurt. I thought I wouldn't get through. But then I did. That's what I am. And that's why I am what I am. It's the path and its intrinsic value that I didn't see before. But if I saw it then, it wouldn't be. And the hard that was yesterday's hard isn't the same as today's hard. It's the juxtapose of pain and joy culminating into what should be. I heard in a dream once that everything is as it should be–that life is to be enjoyed, not to be frustrated with. This is my house and work of resilience.