Teagan White is an artist from Minnesota, where winters are long yet nature is still seemingly bountiful. She graces us with celebratory water-based paintings that honor the lives and deaths of animals. Instead of the ever present human figure, Teagan uses nature as central motifs, decorated by the details of their own habitat.
There are beautiful nods to mortality in her work. Some pieces include subtle details like a flame at the edge of a blade of grass and some hit more dramatically via a dagger straight through the body of a small creature. The palette is earthy and somehow also a bit supernatural. Her ability to keep the image masterful and decorative despite the intensity of the content is a craft in itself. There is absolute intrigue in a work of art that lures us with its aesthetic charm and then keeps us present once we examine the content closer. In Teagan’s work, there are crucial messages about the realities of animal life in a menacingly human world.
In pieces like “Least Concern”, the artist bravely addresses injustices faced by helpless forest creatures where black oil traipses between their fur and wings. In other paintings, an animal is shown practically decomposing in front of our eyes. But it is still an undeniably beautiful image. There is a wonderful juxtaposition of dark and light in both concept and content for Teagan – a sort of dance among truth and home.
To see Teagan’s work online, visit her website or follow her on social media @teaganwh
