We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Patricia Moss-vreeland. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Patricia below.
Hi Patricia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Midway through my career in 1993, I won a national competition to design the Memorial Room of the Holocaust Museum Houston, that became a unique and meaningful experience as a permanent installation. The Memorial Room welcomes a large group of international visitors, where three walls of art convey the specifics of the Holocaust and the universality of loss, while making room for contemplation and solace.
The Memorial Room became a pivot point that would eventually lead me to think differently about my directions as an artist. Working on the Holocaust for three years revealed the historical importance of memory and the many reverberations of collective memory on a society. The emotional responses of museum visitors and the stories of survivors
stayed with me long after the Holocaust Museum opened to the public, altering my ideas and artwork. I began to question the relationship between memory and emotion, leading me to find neuroscience, and to explore the science behind memory. Two years after the Museum commission, I sought out a neuropsychologist to be my advisor for a commission I received at EKG, University City Science Center, to learn how our brains function, and the construction of memory.
This unfolded nicely as I found numerous connections between the intersection of art and science, and image and words, as my poetry found a new home in many exhibitions and a book that followed. This marked an important passage of time for me. It expanded one meaningful project that became a bridge towards another, new ways of thinking about art, how to collaborate across disciplines, and how to use my art for communication about memory and the human condition. Through memory, we all become creators and co-creators of stories that help tell about personal histories and rituals.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I grew up making art. I was inspired by my mother who drew all the time and found what she did magical while she shared her passion and skill by mentoring me. I chose to go to art school, and after graduating, was very fortunate to be accepted into the Marian Locks Gallery. I became part of her stable of artists, benefited from her mentorship, exhibited my drawing and paintings, while having my work accepted into permanent museum collections. After two decades of exhibiting, as I matured as an artist, I found I was curious about making art for different spaces, so I began to write proposals and find competitions to apply to. As it turned out, one of the first attempts, I found myself, along with my sculptor husband, the winner of a national competition to design the Memorial Room, for the Holocaust Museum Houston. In 1996, the Museum opened, and the Memorial Room went on to win four international awards. At that point, it seemed I would return to my studio but was stalled as I questioned the relationship between memory and emotion. I was intrigued by the 1990s being referred to as the “decade of the brain,” and decided to embrace my interest about the science of memory to learn more. Then I found an art and science gallery, Esther Klein Gallery, in Philadelphia, and submitted a proposal, for their Art-in Science Series. I received this Millennial commission, which began my journey exploring the role of memory in our lives via science and art, that continues to this day. I discovered the relationship between art, creativity, learning and brain function, and made it one of the central ideas within my exhibition, titled Memory- Connections Matter, (memory is first a connection), along with discovering that my poetry found a place within my visual artworks for the first time. I designed Memory- Connections Matter, tagged “a metaphoric walk through the brain”, for people to make choices and this would affect their interaction and reveal how memory changes over time and direction. I knew I had arrived at something important: the understanding that the memories we create are keys to who we are.
This has led to many exhibitions, workshops, conferences, poetry videos, and a book, “A Place for Memory, Where Art and Science Meet, where I reveal how creativity guides the ways in which we remember. In my most recent exhibition, “In Search of Meaning, Memory Becomes Us”, that traveled to four different venues, I decided to include the range of artworks I am involved in, paintings, drawings, prints, videos, artist books in an installation that weaves them all together to create a multi-sensory experience about the role of memory in our lives. These artworks are inspired by interior networks and patterns of neurological activity, landscapes where our human interactions are visible, still lives and abstractions as distillations of place, time, and memory. I collaborated with a neuropsychologist, and together we connected the personal to the universal, explored the function of the human brain to find meaning, different ways of knowing, and the importance of stepping out of our silos and forming relationships. As an introduction to this exhibition, I wrote, “Memory is a universal human process, but is also deeply subjective and personal. This is exciting for me because it means that when we examine memory, there’s the potential to understand our own individual experience more fully, to see who we are – and at the same time find points of connections with others”.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect to being an artist, in addition to following my passion and inquiry, has been having my art projects presented in public spaces. This has allowed me to interact with so many different people as a result. I learned how to collaborate with neuroscientists, to learn about the science of memory, and then translate this through my artworks. Way back in 1998, I became immersed in this new discipline, bringing new research in this field to my art, which continues to this day.
I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experiences with people, and as a part of my art practice, have curated interactive and participatory experiences about the social and historical impact of memory in various media and for different venues. I am also always amazed that a piece of art can speak to someone personally, while the artist is not there. Since I always leave space for visitors to respond in my installations, I have a treasured group of responses and testimonials that explain how much they appreciate learning about memory, learning through art, and how this impacts who they are. Engaging viewers with options to participate, enlarges my community, and has made my multi-sensory artworks about memory, even more rewarding.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I have always followed my instincts to stay close to what I believe makes a strong piece of art and has meaning that evolves over time. I find it challenging to see what I can create as I change format and genres. I continue to draw and paint the figure, landscape, and still life, integrating these with abstraction, and working digitally to make an assortment of pigment prints. I refer to nature often, as a place for beauty and for metaphoric connections.
At this stage of my creative work, while maintaining my drawing and painting practice, I’m excited by the possibilities presented by new formats. My exploration of the mechanisms of memory has pushed me to play with ways to join words and images, weaving poetry into my work. Recently, I have expanded to making videos of my poetry, where I could have people listen as well as look at visuals. The poems have been embedded within my exhibitions, until recently when I had my first screening. The poem video, “Apple Picking with Eve” explores how history shapes and records our identities and narratives, and how the processes of perception and memory can challenge and re-tell those stories. It presents the voices and perspectives of an ensemble of historical female characters. This piece was an interesting circle back to my early roots with memory and history from the Holocaust Museum. I was interested to tell my story growing up at a time when women were largely invisible in museums or in history books. Because it is a multimedia piece, incorporating images, audio and text, it brings in a new audience, which is something I find valuable. With each new effort of mine creatively, I have an eye out for expanding my artistic boundaries, execution, and connection with people who may find it relevant. Underlying all of this is my belief in looking at the role of memory in our lives, as an important portal to self-discovery, and the ways in which we connect with each other.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.patriciamossvreeland.com
- Instagram: @patriciamossvreeland
- Facebook: patriciamossvreeland
- Linkedin: patriciamossvreeland