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With its short days and long nights, winter can feel like a never-ending saga of grey monotony. The winter blues is a very real thing, but so is the practice of color psychology.
Color psychology is the study of the influence colors and hues have on human behavior. It’s widely used in marketing and branding and the design of public spaces to help people feel a certain way. Just as the grey days of winter can pull spirits down, so can a vibrantly colored painting lift spirits.
Bold color and personal expression are the subject of Pittsburgh-based artist Sheila Squillante’s new body of work “Be Bold, Girl!” on display at UPMC Jameson’s Hoyt Atrium Gallery, Feb. 5 through March 26. Her short-but-sweet artist statement describes them as a collection of paintings that are “sick of being quiet.”
“They may have been raised to be sweet, but the ‘80s are over and they have grown into their full-throated voices. Big color and expressive marks abound. Big personality and opinions ready to be expressed. Watch out!,” the artist writes.
Squillante is every bit as much a writer as she is an artist who pulls from her personal experience. Her book of poetry, “Mostly Human,” won the 2020 Wicked Woman Book Prize from Brick House Books. Her debut essay collection, “All Things Edible, Random and Odd: Essays on Grief, Love and Food,” was published by CLASH Books in 2023 and “The Brightest Days: New and Selected Poems” is due to be released by Braddock Avenue Books this year.
Squillante directs and teaches in the master of fine arts program in creative writing at Chatham University. She is also executive editor of The Fourth River, Chatham’s journal of nature and place-based writing, and editor-at-large for Barrelhouse Magazine.
It is therefore no surprise that Squillante’s abstract paintings have been featured in numerous literary journals, including Brevity and A-Minor, and as the cover art for “Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose.” Her work has appeared in numerous group shows including “Down on Paper,” at Vestige Concept Gallery in Pittsburgh and “color(less)” at the Ely Center for Contemporary Art in New Haven, CT. Her first solo show, “Serendipitous Gestures: Watercolor and Ink Paintings,” is currently on view at the Cooper-Siegel Library in Fox Chapel. She is a member of the Confluence Women’s Art Collective in Pittsburgh.
“Be Bold, Girl!” is one of a series of exhibitions resulting from a partnership between Arts + Education at the Hoyt and UPMC Jameson to integrate the healing properties of art into community wellness and healthcare.
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