Alicia Sampson Ethridge

Alicia Sampson Ethridge is a contemplative artist and mother of two, living in coastal Maine. Born in New Jersey in 1984, she moved to Maine in 2008. Ethridge worked as a grief counselor employing expressive art therapies for six years before she was initiated into the Interspiritual Order of Art Monastics in 2014. She studied abstract painting, experimental and figurative drawing at Maine College of Art. During this time she met a group of painters who cofounded SEVEN artists collective. Ethridge’s son was born with a congenital heart defect and ultimately needed a life saving heart transplant. When his health was stable she leaned into painting to heal herself. She has been working as an artist ever since. Ethridge’s work is vibrant, textured, and bold. She blends figuration and abstraction. She is influenced by myth, ancestry, dreams, nature and motherhood.

She has been included in recent exhibitions in Maine, New Hampshire and Illinois including; Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME, New Systems, Portland, ME, Katzman Contemporary, Dover, NH, George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME, The Art Center, Dover, NH, Dear Artists, Chicago, IL, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME, Stonewall Gallery, Yarmouth, ME, Buoy, Kittery, ME and Zero Station, Portland, ME. Her studio is in York, ME.

“The Birds and the Herds is the journey of my inner contradictions, emotional landscapes and dreamscapes. These paintings encompass energetic, textured worlds full of bright primaries that are inhabited by animals, humans and hybrid creatures. Abstract backgrounds slowly transform into more discernible features: eyes, mouth, shroud, wings, fur, hooves, hands, paws, beak. The imagery in my work reveals itself through contemplative art practices, dream journaling and encounters with animals in my waking life. Guidance and wisdom arise as I observe a soaring bird, the strength of horses, the tenderness of a fawn, or the fearlessness of a guardian wolf. The creatures are messengers, awakening my innate abilities and mark my growth as I navigate the expanse of the canvas, my life and beyond.”