Nicole's Story Behind The Painting:

The texture of this abstract painting is evocative of ocean waves, rough waters. The title references the Plato's allegory of a sophisticated, utopian civilization. In the legend, Atlantis disappears into the sea after the civilization's people turn away from morality and spirituality.

Legends like the story of Atlantis can suggest that human society becomes more corrupt over time. However, most historians believe that Atlantis is a story that Plato created to explain his philosophical ideas and wasn't based on an actual civilization that had fallen. Plato used imagination and storytelling to reflect his theories about human nature and societies.

Imagination and storytelling can be used to promote ideas about the open possibilities of humankind and envision how we'd like to live, as opposed to how we tend to live.

The painting has a lot of movement, including brushstrokes that evoke chaotic, frantic energy and brushstrokes that evoke more of a slow, unhurried feeling. The colors are soothing, yet stir up excitement and a more intense energy in areas where there are sharp changes in the colors.

Things fall apart and come back together and fall apart and come back together. This process is part of how we grow and change as individuals, in our relationships, as societies, as humankind.

Can humans maintain utopia? Maybe not. But we are capable of love, change, growth, hurting, repairing, learning, and imagining new possibilities. Humans may not be able to achieve perfection, but we are capable of so many good things. Instead of sinking into the sea and starting over, our real Atlantis changes and evolves, starting from wherever we are now.