“A visceral and unique engagement with the forces of nature compels me to paint. Nature stuns me, unfathomably immense. I am constantly learning from it. Each painting becomes a landscape that I inhabit.

“Wet paper and paint free me to dive in, fully immersed. After soaking the paper and mixing the paint, I follow nature’s organic vitalities, colors, and patterns. Layers of fast brushwork reveal its electric immediacy, its rhythm and luminosity. More than a picture of things, each work surprises me, transporting me into its own world.” —Alison Cuomo

Recently we reached out to NYC-based painter Alison Cuomo to talk to us about her work. You can learn more about her and see more of her work on her website and on Instagram.

What’s your background? 

After getting a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, I apprenticed with a hand papermaker, and I was also an artist’s assistant for three different artists for a number of years. I worked for many years as a jacquard textile designer. 

Why do you do what you do? 

As a child, I gravitated to drawing and making pictures. I especially loved looking at beautiful things and places. From very early on, the colors of the natural world affected me deeply, almost physically. After I found out that a person could spend her adult life involved with the visual world, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.

What work do you most enjoy doing? 

I enjoy doing artwork the most. By far. It’s work in the sense that you have to show up every day and do it, no matter what. It’s not work in that it feels like play—making things with my hands, exploring, discovering, becoming completely engaged. I’ll sometimes listen to a track of music on a loop for hours on end, and just paint. These painting hours are what I love. 

What themes do you pursue? 

My artwork is all about nature. Making artwork is my response to the absolute awe and amazement I feel in the presence of the natural world. Its magnificent multiplicity, its endless facets and depth, drive me to investigate it through painting. When I really look, when I find myself in nature, I invariably see something astonishing I’ve never appreciated in that particular way before, and this is the focus of my work.

What I seem to continually pursue in the process of painting is a kind of lucky alignment where colors, shapes, textures, lines, air, light, and movement all resonate with one another. When it’s working like that, I feel that something good is happening. If that happens, my job becomes to not interfere. 

What does your work aim to say?

I feel there is tremendous truth and beauty in what we take in with our eyes. The visual elements of the world communicate their own powers. This kind of communication is not the same as what transpires with words. It can reach us in places that words can’t, and when that happens, it is deeply moving and deeply mysterious.

What I hope for is that someone will have a very good experience looking at my artwork.

How does your work comment on current social or political issues? 

I am regularly engaged in political and social issues in ways that don’t involve my artwork. That’s what feels most natural for me.  

Who are your biggest influences? 

There are many artists I admire, all for different reasons. It’s a very long list, which keeps expanding—I’m constantly finding new artists’ work to admire. I don’t think about their work while I’m working, it’s a more subtle process, I think. The feelings and sensations set in motion by their work resonate within me like a ripple hitting the shore.

How have you developed your career? 

I’ve been going to museums and galleries my entire life, which is always inspirational, each time in a new way. I read, listen to, and (whenever possible) go to see other artists talking about their work. All of which transforms me as an artist, as well as affecting the choices I make in the larger world.

How do you seek out opportunities?

I connect with other artists. There’s a vital sense of community I experience, which directs me toward new people and places and possibilities, whether it’s applying to open calls, or going to (now virtual) workshops, where I learn how others approach similar challenges. I also connect on Instagram, sharing my own work, while also enjoying the work of other artists, and hearing what they have to say.

How do you navigate the art world? 

I’m always curious to see what other artists in all kinds of media are doing. I’m often inspired by what I see, so much so I feel a sense of kinship with many of these artists. This experience, this sense of connection, is vital not only in terms of how it sometimes directs me, but also in how I come to see myself within the larger art community.

During the pandemic, looking for this sense of connection means time on Instagram, time online, looking at other artists’ posts and websites, instead of going to galleries and shows, all of which has been a lifeline for me during these difficult times. But there really is no replacement for seeing work in person, and meeting another artist face to face. I can’t wait for all of us to (safely) get back that.

What do you dislike about the art world? 

I guess what I dislike about the art world are the same things I dislike about the world in general.  

Which current art world trends are you following? 

The current artists movement to empower ourselves to handle our careers and the business of the art world—with or without commercial galleries or agents or speculators—is very exciting, as well as long past due. The pandemic has been a motivating factor in this, and I hope the change will be permanent, which would be a good thing for the art world itself. 

Why art?  

Art, for me, in addition to being an activity I need to be involved with, is a path to travel on which is always taking me somewhere new and interesting. 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given? 

In terms of art, the best and most recent advice I have been given is from a movie one of my sons took me to see. In the movie, an opera singer says how important it was to learn from Yogananda, essentially to get out of her own way while she sings. When I heard that, it made me realize that I needed to do the same thing. When I paint, everything that is needed is already there, and I need to get out of the way as much as I can.

Has literature impacted your art making?  

Yes, it has.  I love literature—it’s able to say what I may have felt or seen, but never before articulated, never before realized. I love that shock of recognition. To whatever degree I can manage, I aspire to pay attention to the world. 

Are libraries a part of your world? / How important are libraries to you as an artist? 

Ever since I was a child, going to the library has been a fundamental part of my life. In addition to literature and some nonfiction, I have always brought home large, beautiful fine art books. Having an opportunity to pore over, to live with, gorgeous art books has extended my reach beyond where it could otherwise go. 

Being able to see (even in reproduction) remarkable art and craft—from all over the world and throughout the ages—has always been a deep lifelong pleasure. Not only do I learn so much, but it helps me see how I am one artist, one art lover, in a long history of art and artists. 

What have you been working on recently? 

Recently, I’ve been working on smaller paintings, using smaller paper sizes. I’m finding it an absorbingly new and challenging experience, because it is literally a more compact space to work in. At the same time, when I’m using the smaller form, I don’t want the painting itself to feel small or diminutive. And that is the challenge.

Have the recent events had an impact on your art practice? 

Absolutely. Pain seems to be everywhere right now, death and disease, injustice, economic devastation, loneliness, isolation, and other hardships we can’t always see. Making art orients me in all of this. It allows me the chance to connect with nature, as well as the chance to connect with other artists, other people who simply love art, who need it in their life.

Art itself—making art, seeing art, feeling a sense of community with others—this helps to put everything into a larger perspective for me, which can be inspiriting. I feel so fortunate to be able to do this. It has given me a life-saving path, and I hope that what I try to do can give other people some pleasure and relief.