During her childhood in the Pacific Northwest, Lori Moen’s world didn’t much allow a place for art. A “wall colorist” in her early years, she spent hours poring over Sunday comics and the paintings in the family Bible, expressing her own imaginings through drawing until high school, when she took painting classes that eventually introduced her to oils.
Moen’s imagination was opened by the freedoms of art—paintings have become her way to share stories, evoke emotion and thought, and explore the wonders of wildlife. Nature has been her greatest inspiration—both as a child on the West Coast and as an artist on the East Coast—moving her brush over the canvas to create the incredible wonder that she sees and feels. “The thing that inspires me about wildlife is the beauty and freedom that these creatures possess and the fact that the Creator sees them and cares for them,” she says. “I was raised in an alcoholic, male-dominated home where a woman’s voice was disregarded and silenced, often physically. When I was a child, riding my bike and flying on the swings was a visceral escape. Feeling the wind lift my hair and move all around me was a spiritual experience. It was freedom. That’s what inspires me the most—the freedom.”
Moen’s contemporary impressionism is a love story to that freedom, taking shape through paint, color and the ever-changing light of the Lowcountry. “The thing that has captured my heart here is the abundance of sky and water, and birds and light. Light changes everything: colors, shapes, perception … everything. Each painting needs a story, and it needs light to move you into the heart of it,” she says. “Most of my work ends up focused in on a main character, like a portrait. I guess perhaps it’s easier to find the story if you can connect with the main character—even if it’s a palm tree. Every new piece presents its own unique challenge, no matter what subject I choose. Birds are my absolute favorite subject to paint. I struggle with anxiety, and the birds remind me that God sees them and cares for them—just as He sees me and cares for me. When I paint birds I connect to that promise, and that promise allows me to walk—and to paint—in freedom.”
Recently, a painting entitled You Looking at Me? was chosen for the Goose Creek Mayor’s Choice Award and hung in the city’s municipal art collection for a time. Moen’s work is represented by Perspective Gallery in Mount Pleasant.
