ART
eye really can look like. I could paint my own
ear a hundred times and still see something
different each time — it is never the same
thing twice.”
When she moved back to Port St. Lucie, her
work transitioned from taking images in a
shower setting to using a model and shooting
images in a pool, Loughlin says. “I was drawn
to the idea of how the abstraction of water
interacts with the realism of the figure. It also
seemed like a natural progression since I was
back in South Florida, where we are surrounded
by the beauty of the beach and beautiful
water. It was a matter of blending the two
subject matters to make a cohesive theme.”
The goal in her current work is to see
how skin tones are affected by the reflective
nature of water and how the image becomes
abstracted in water. She says, “My work
involves mixing highly saturated skin tones
with blue hues to illustrate the intricacies of
how the flesh and water interact.”
So far, the artist claims the Museum of
Modern Art in New York as her favorite. “I
really enjoyed the MoMA and how fresh and
modern a lot of the art was.” She’s also a fan
of the classics: “I’ve always been a fan of Van
Gogh, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and Leonardo
50
da Vinci’s work and drawings as well.”
Loughlin’s Peace is an example of how she blends the abstraction of water with the realism
of the figure.
ED DRONDOSKI PHOTOS
Downtown Stuart is within walking distance of Loughlin’s studio, which is a new venture where the young artist can explore her creativity.