2023 | Cold Wax and Mixed Media on Canvas | Original Framed Artwork
The signs may tell you which way to go. That doesn't mean you have to follow them.
In My Way, contemporary artist Alissa Van Atta combines New York City imagery, expressive abstraction, and layered mixed media in a bold exploration of independence, ambition, and the freedom to determine one's own direction.
An oversized hand enters the composition from above, its extended finger pointing into a turbulent landscape of black, crimson, vivid pink, and weathered gray. Beneath it, fragments of ONE WAY street signs intersect with urban imagery and references to New York's iconic skyline, including the Empire State Building.
The familiar language of street signage becomes something more personal. Designed to establish order and dictate movement through the city, the ONE WAY signs introduce an intriguing contradiction when paired with the painting's title.
Who gets to decide which direction is the correct one?
Van Atta incorporates photographic and printed imagery, including sewing-pattern elements, into layers of cold wax and mixed media. Architectural references and graphic text emerge from beneath distressed surfaces, while expressive passages of red and pink disrupt the darker composition.
The sewing-pattern references introduce another interpretation of prescribed direction. Like the instructions that govern traffic, patterns provide predetermined structures intended to produce a particular result. Within the context of feminine identity, these fragments suggest the expectations and conventions that can shape how women are encouraged to live.
The prominent hand reinforces the painting's central tension. It may be read as a gesture of instruction, a declaration of intent, or a refusal to surrender individual choice to the directions imposed by others.
The Empire State Building, an enduring symbol of New York's ambition and possibility, introduces a further association with personal aspirations and the determination required to pursue them.
Through its collision of recognizable imagery and expressive abstraction, My Way transforms an urban scene into a consideration of agency and self-determination.
The painting's heavily worked surface reinforces this idea. Scraped passages, obscured signs, fragmented imagery, and spontaneous marks resist the clean organization of the underlying visual elements, suggesting that finding one's own direction is rarely a straightforward process.
Part of Van Atta's Her City collection, My Way reflects her interest in urban environments as spaces of ambition, contradiction, and individual experience, while exploring the ways women challenge expectations and define their own identities.
Bold, rebellious, and unapologetically independent, the painting celebrates the freedom to reject prescribed routes and embrace a less conventional path.
The world may insist there's only one way. That doesn't mean it has to be yours.
Artist: Alissa Van Atta
Title: My Way
Year: 2023
Medium: Cold Wax and Mixed Media on Canvas
Canvas Dimensions: 12 H × 12 W × 0.75 D inches
Framed Dimensions: 13 H × 13 W × 1.5 D inches
Original: One-of-a-kind painting
Signed: Yes
Framed: Yes
Collection: Her City
Proposed Price: $600
Availability: Available
Location: Artist's inventory
Original framed artwork by Alissa Van Atta. Insured shipping is available, with protective packaging appropriate for a one-of-a-kind mixed-media painting.
2023 | Cold Wax and Mixed Media on Canvas | Original Framed Artwork
The signs may tell you which way to go. That doesn't mean you have to follow them.
In My Way, contemporary artist Alissa Van Atta combines New York City imagery, expressive abstraction, and layered mixed media in a bold exploration of independence, ambition, and the freedom to determine one's own direction.
An oversized hand enters the composition from above, its extended finger pointing into a turbulent landscape of black, crimson, vivid pink, and weathered gray. Beneath it, fragments of ONE WAY street signs intersect with urban imagery and references to New York's iconic skyline, including the Empire State Building.
The familiar language of street signage becomes something more personal. Designed to establish order and dictate movement through the city, the ONE WAY signs introduce an intriguing contradiction when paired with the painting's title.
Who gets to decide which direction is the correct one?
Van Atta incorporates photographic and printed imagery, including sewing-pattern elements, into layers of cold wax and mixed media. Architectural references and graphic text emerge from beneath distressed surfaces, while expressive passages of red and pink disrupt the darker composition.
The sewing-pattern references introduce another interpretation of prescribed direction. Like the instructions that govern traffic, patterns provide predetermined structures intended to produce a particular result. Within the context of feminine identity, these fragments suggest the expectations and conventions that can shape how women are encouraged to live.
The prominent hand reinforces the painting's central tension. It may be read as a gesture of instruction, a declaration of intent, or a refusal to surrender individual choice to the directions imposed by others.
The Empire State Building, an enduring symbol of New York's ambition and possibility, introduces a further association with personal aspirations and the determination required to pursue them.
Through its collision of recognizable imagery and expressive abstraction, My Way transforms an urban scene into a consideration of agency and self-determination.
The painting's heavily worked surface reinforces this idea. Scraped passages, obscured signs, fragmented imagery, and spontaneous marks resist the clean organization of the underlying visual elements, suggesting that finding one's own direction is rarely a straightforward process.
Part of Van Atta's Her City collection, My Way reflects her interest in urban environments as spaces of ambition, contradiction, and individual experience, while exploring the ways women challenge expectations and define their own identities.
Bold, rebellious, and unapologetically independent, the painting celebrates the freedom to reject prescribed routes and embrace a less conventional path.
The world may insist there's only one way. That doesn't mean it has to be yours.
Artist: Alissa Van Atta
Title: My Way
Year: 2023
Medium: Cold Wax and Mixed Media on Canvas
Canvas Dimensions: 12 H × 12 W × 0.75 D inches
Framed Dimensions: 13 H × 13 W × 1.5 D inches
Original: One-of-a-kind painting
Signed: Yes
Framed: Yes
Collection: Her City
Proposed Price: $600
Availability: Available
Location: Artist's inventory
Original framed artwork by Alissa Van Atta. Insured shipping is available, with protective packaging appropriate for a one-of-a-kind mixed-media painting.
