Biography
Maura Ingraham was born in Northeast Ohio in 2004. She has lived there with her mom and three brothers. She graduated from Highland High School in 2022, and is a current student at the University of Akron. She will graduate in 2025 with a BFA in painting and drawing, with minors in psychology and American Sign Language.
Maura is at the beginning of her experience in the art world, showcasing paintings in a few local shows, including a juried exhibition at Myers School of Art, where she received an honorable mention award. She also was a recipient of the Mary Schiller Myers scholarship from the 2023 Myers School of Art scholarship competition. As an oil painter, her subject matter changes frequently. Usually remaining in the abstract and surrealism category, she likes to experiment with brush texture, layering, and collage. A majority of her work stems from songs and poems she writes. Her goal is to have a narrative, tell a story through the painting. With lyrics or a feeling in mind, she connects it to a visual representation.
Artist Statement
2024
Through my paintings, I am revealing a fear I didn’t know I had. I’m interested in the exploration of biblical parables, and how they can relate to non-religious narratives. The bible consists of different types of stories, ranging from the Garden of Eden, to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. For some paintings, I take a story and give it a personal retelling, like Psalm 121:5-8 “The Lord will keep you from all harm,” is retold in “His Failure.” Other paintings, like “The Pea,” use imagery from folklore tales, such as “The Princess and the Pea,” to reimagine biblical stories, like The Temptation of Jesus. These reimaginings of stories are inspired by my childhood conflict with religious beliefs, my relationships with the people I paint, and an interest in animal imagery.
The figures in the bible are abstract ideas that are difficult for me to digest, but when God is described as a concrete concept like a “sheep,” I can finally begin to process the logistics of it. Representing these theoretical intangible ideas with a physical form creates a larger impact on the narrative because it places everything on an even playing field. Suddenly, a teenage girl and God are being paralleled in the same story. Combining symbolism and conceptual ideas are important in these paintings as it can reimagine God from the powerful protector into a weak witness of a mortal sin.
These characters are built into a space that is constructed as a collage. Sometimes using physical material, these spaces not only interact with the characters as an environment, but also show the importance of the background to the narrative. This style of collage is a way to intertwine ideas, connecting seemingly unrelated imagery to tell the story.
CV
2024 Doowutchyalike, Graffiti HeArt, Cleveland, Ohio
2024 3rd Annual Emerging Young Artists Exhibition, Valley Art Center, Chagrin Falls, Ohio
2024 Young Blood, The Hub Art Factory, Canton, Ohio
2024 88th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, Emily Davis Gallery, Akron, Ohio
2023 Everything but the Kitchen Sink, Akron, Ohio
2023 Bazaarbeque Vol. 10, Kink Contemporary, Cleveland, Ohio
2023 2nd Annual Emerging Young Artists Exhibition, Valley Art Center, Chagrin Falls, Ohio
2023 87th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, Emily Davis Gallery, Akron, Ohio