Artist Haleigh Givens channels surrealistic style into nature-based paintings

Fittingly, Haleigh Givens is not fond of assigning names to her paintings.

"Orange tree," she suggested when looking at one of her finished, no-name pieces, which showed the decaying remnants of a trunk of a once-vibrant tree.

She doesn't like assigning titles she likely will frown upon at a later date, or possibly not remember, and she's not concerned it's missing. Besides, it's consistent with the theme of her paintings, which contain truncations and deletions among the colorful, flowing lines.

The surrealistic style of the recent Southeast Missouri State University graduate is on display at Parengo Coffee in Sikeston, Missouri, with a small group of paintings and ceramics.

Her work also was on display this spring at her Bachelor of Fine Arts exhibition, titled "Vestige," which means the sign of something that once existed but since has died or disappeared.

Givens poses with one of her paintings Thursday in Cape Girardeau.Andrew J. Whitaker

In Givens' case, her inspiration arrives from the inexplicable working, or nonworking, of the human mind.

"My work right now is leaning toward, concept-wise, about memory and not what we remember, but instead, what we forget," Givens said. "How we leave a lot of our memory in the past and cut things out. Our memory naturally degenerates over time. So I'm using these natural elements, like trees and skulls, to kind of represent how it deteriorates over time and how we can block out pieces ourselves."

The 24-year-old is a 2011 graduate of Cape Girardeau Central High School and is a confessed lifelong doodler who began to take her art more seriously her freshman year of college.

"I was always taught to think of it as a hobby," said Givens, who described herself as a look-out-the window daydreamer who concentrated best when occupying part of her mind with mindless sketching.

She decided to take a more serious approach to her talents at Southeast, where she found herself mesmerized by the Painting I class she took a couple of years ago.

Givens poses with one of her paintings Thursday in Cape Girardeau.Andrew J. Whitaker

"I took basic painting and was dreading it because I was, like, 'Oh, no ... oils, it's so scary,'" Givens said. "I really fell in love with it. It's a medium where you can go so many different ways. You can use it in so many different styles, and it's so adjustable, and I love that about it."

Givens paints on wood, preferring it over canvas. She was taught to construct her own panel and frame, which all become part of the scene, by Southeast art professor Justin Miller. She'll buy the wood from a local hardware store, sand it, glue it, nail it and prime it. It sets the stage for the creative process, which usually involves a reference photo taken while on a hike. The photos are usually of some abnormality, whether it be a fallen tree, roots or some other feature that caught her attention.

"I was more attracted to these trees that were, like, on their last leg than the young sproutling trees," Givens said.

Her wood canvas serves as a natural surface to project the subject, highlighting the grain in a subtle way. It serves as a contrast to her style, which is simultaneously flowing and halting, characteristics of the mysterious brain.

"Concept has always been my weaker part, I feel like, but I feel like it's something you start to realize about your art as you're making it," Givens said. "So the more you make art, the more you understand why you're making art, the more you understand what it's about."

While she may incorporate bones and skeletons into her work, she makes no bones about her inspiration. It arrives from her bewilderment and frustration with her own memory and a fixation with the missing pieces.

"It was starting to drive me a little crazy, so I think it started to manifest in my work," Givens said. "And instead of being childhood memories and memories of things ... I clearly remember I started focusing on what I couldn't remember, and why I couldn't remember, and what I blocked out and what I couldn't bring back."

It's a darker subject she deals with in a natural way, with a bright personality and colors. She can laugh at the predicament of being human.

It makes for vibrant painting.

jbreer@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3629

Pertinent address:

114 E. Front St., Sikeston, Mo.