Comusina Celan (b 1985) is a mixed media artist who lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. As the child of a builder, she watched as materials were manipulated and joined together to form dozens of homes. This early exposure to the building process continues to be a source of inspiration. After being awarded a fellowship to paint in San Jose, Costa Rica, and later a residency in northern Germany, Celan began to question the meaning of location, home, and our tenuous relationships to both place and other people. Celan lived in Munich, Germany for a year after graduation from the University of Georgia for cultural and language immersion; after which, she relocated to New Orleans, LA to begin her professional career as a painter. The city’s history as a port and stories of recovery after Katrina inspired Celan’s series titled “Home Sweet Home” – combining fables and imagined landscapes. Comusina Celan is currently pursuing an interdisciplinary MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
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In my current work, I investigate natural disasters and other significant events to which the human forms are blissfully oblivious. A sense of ordered chaos exists in my landscapes – landscapes that appear inhabitable while also resonating a muted hostility. I am intrigued by the relationship between personal identity and one’s location – both culturally and geographically. My composition weaves together images of comfort and a stability: homes, quilts, and flags; with the romantic impressions of travel and escape: migrating birds, trains, ships, and sail boats. In a world constantly in motion, painting allows me to become the creator of an evolving microcosm on a few feet of canvas. In my work, I seek to combine the exciting quality of spontaneous shapes created by dripped paint with the skewed perspectives and detailed patterns of 16th to 19th century Indian miniatures. The combination reflects the cultural climate of today – a desire for modernity balanced by nostalgia for the past.