Biography Jolanta Soares, an Abstract Expressionist artist, grew up in Communist Poland, coming of age during the Solidarity Movement, before emigrating to the United States. This background intermingles with her experiences as a mother, her love of sailing and working as an IT professional, to inspire her many different series of works. “Stories” describes her life’s journey, “Into the Cloud” conveys a rebellion against the digitization and vulnerability of our identities, “Poppies Fields” embodies the beauty and pathos inherent in poppies, and “Don’t Think” being the Joie de vivre. Reminiscent of De Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Brian Rutenberg, and other Abstract Expressionist artists, Jolanta uses an Oil & Wax and Encaustic techniques to create paintings. Artist Statement My art represents my emotions, memories & desires. My paintings are intuitive. Every so often I start my paintings without any plan or structure, I just put paint on a board and play with the butter like mixes of oil paint and beeswax. I put down several layers of paint while experimenting with colors, textures, and markings while using different tools such as brooms, whisks, skewers, pencils etc. The process off adding and subtracting paint is an essential part of the process. By revealing older layers and building up new ones, different feelings and memories are awakened and they eventually lead to the finished pieces that speak to me.