It is very hard to put into words the way grief changed my perception of life, and how it allowed me to connect with the possibility that life continues beyond death, and then beyond what we can see or know. These paintings are an attempt at a visual representation of that felt experience. How when we see something beautiful in our lives, we have a singular moment of transcendence - This is the connection I am searching for. A bigger experience. Tangible and visible evidence that our world is porous.

My paintings are rooted in real places that I’ve visited, yet they possess a dreamlike quality. Nature is a vehicle where I find moments of transcendence in the ordinary fabric of everyday life. Light is everything. Filtering through trees or glimmering across water, it plays a pivotal role in my work. It is a catalyst, and a reminder to stay curious. To continue to search for clues where nature will open up and reveal evidence that our surroundings are not as simple as we think.

Following the loss of my parents, my art has been shaped by grief, a transformative force that has reframed my perception of the world. Grief is a paradoxical experience—a profound journey into sadness, yet also a doorway to nearly overwhelming love and connection. Each of these paintings is a gateway, an entrance, a window, to what I refer to as "thin places"—moments that reveal the veil between the seen and unseen. My paintings are an invitation to contemplate the presence of something beyond ourselves, something ineffable yet persistent, felt, and present. I am more aware than ever of our collective grief about our relationship to this planet, our ecological grief, and the grief associated with war and human suffering. I come back to the invitation of grief which asks us to transform ourselves and to open ourselves towards our connectedness.

Lina Tharsing is a Kentucky-based artist whose work has been shown across the United States. She was named a superstar of Southern art by Oxford American. She currently has a two person exhibition with Scroll NYC. Her most recent solo show, Chez Elle, was an online exhibition with MARCH. She was recently featured in BRINK, a literary magazine as well as Burnaway. The most recent exhibitions she has been included in are Still at the University of Kentucky, Spring at PRIMARY in Miami Florida, The Dallas Art Fair, Inside Out at Scroll NYC, and Small Paintings at Venus Over Manhattan. She has been featured in Garden and Gun Magazine, Whitehot Magazine, Burnaway, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Journal, Oxford American, Hyperallergic, and Booooooom.