Nostalgic experiences have a way of extending itself to reshape our personal fantasies and dreams. It can infiltrate our memories to make them a little more exaggerated and not merely as authentic. And yet, it is still a mysterious and well embraced phenomenon that nostalgia allows us to have the perfect homecoming, to return to a place and time where we long to relive. Depictions of Black childhood nostalgia are channeled through personal memories and feelings about racial awareness in my large scale paintings. I attempt to capture young Black female figures glowing in a fantastical world, an imperfect Edenic playground, where the present and past dwell on the same plane. Inspired by the history of Dutch Renaissance pastoral painting and portraiture I create atmospheric landscapes that symbolize a gateway to an ideal and dream-like world where Black innocence and nostalgia can coexist.
Audia Yvonne Dixon (b. 1992, Fresno CA) comes from a family of artists and matriarchs who continue to influence her work. Dixon holds a BA in Art from CSU-Fresno (2016) and has recently earned an MA in Studio Art, also at CSU-Fresno (2021) where she is a recipient of both the Graduate Deans and President’s Dean’s Medal in 2022 for her academic and community contributions in art. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and public art projects, including at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport (Dec 2021); the graduate thesis exhibition at the Phebe Conley Gallery at CSU Fresno (November 2021); Bakersfield College (September 2022), collaborative murals part of Dulce Upfront’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing” mural tour (2020); and a solo exhibition at 1418 Fulton in Downtown Fresno. She is currently an Art Instructor at Clovis Community College.
