Artist Statement: "Happiness With Arms Stretched Wide Open depicts young girls marching, armed with flowers and plants, to an eager woman waiting for them with arms stretched wide open, as well as a vintage floral pattern down the sides. With this piece, I hope to express the joyful confidence that people have at a young age, something that is coveted as we age and waited for ""with arms wide open"" the further we are from youth. My work consists of collected memories from a past that is unknown to me, which I create and mold to my own, and this piece falls into that realm. I use other females in place of myself to tell my story when I cannot. The figures in this piece are from an early 20th century illustration which I altered to make all female and all holding plant life."
Monica Chulewicz is a Polish-American artist who was born and raised in New York. She is a printmaker, fiber artist, and collagist who uses vintage material. Her themes of mortality, fragility, renewal, and disability are heavily based off of her experiences living with several progressive chronic illnesses. In 2016, she received the Grand Prize for the VSA Young Emerging Artist program. She has earned a BFA in Art from Adelphi University and was awarded The Peter Paone Award for Excellence in Works on Paper in 2013. She frequently shows in New York, as well as throughout the country. She continues to live and work in New York.
