Brianna Campbell / The Collegian

Nine paintings hang on the multicolored walls of a Fresno art studio. With images of balloons, boxes and roots, the abstract series entitled “Shifting Boundariesâ€Â explores the process of evolving perspectives.

Local artist Aileen Imperatrice said that she has seen a lot of things in the news recently that have troubled her.

“You see people really sticking to a certain way of thinking, so much so that it excludes a lot of people,â€Â Imperatrice said. It was this observation that inspired Imperatrice’s latest series.

The exhibit is currently on display at Ashtree Studios, which Imperatrice owns with her husband.

“It’s the whole idea of coming from where you were before, still being part of yourself, but evolving from that,â€Â Imperatrice said. “You have to be willing to constantly evolve. You have to be willing to challenge yourself with new experiences.â€Â

Imperatrice tackles the familiar and the unfamiliar head-won in her art.

“It’s a little uncomfortable, I think it’s important for you to ask yourself ‘why is this uncomfortable for me?’ then review your own perspectives on things,â€Â Imperatrice said. “Otherwise you get stagnant in your same place.â€Â

Imperatrice said that “Shifting Boundariesâ€Â is her most abstract series yet, which she said is the result of external inspiration.

“Over the last year I’ve been really exposed to abstract art through outside experiences and it really moved me,â€Â Imperatrice said. “I thought, I really want to try that. So the marriage of where my mind was thinking about my own evolution as a human being and where my art was evolving to, it came together at the perfect moment.â€Â

While the symbols she used are more conceptual then her previous work, Imperatrice said they still represent a decision to evolve.

A common theme found in the series are balloons, which she envisions as human heads.

“A balloon is in one place, you’re holding it there, and it’s staying where you have it until you let it go,â€Â Imperatrice said. “Then it goes its own way — it’s free. I look at that, and I think that’s really kind of a metaphor for how we choose to either let ourselves go free or we stay in one place.â€Â

Boxes are also featured in many of the paintings, either alone or encasing a balloon. This, according to Imperatrice is meant to illustrate the decision to stay within a proverbial box or step outside of it.
Several of the works have trees and roots embedded on the canvas designed to symbolize human origins.

“When we grow up, we’re taught certain values, taught to believe certain things,â€Â Imperatrice said. “Then we choose to evolve or not evolve from that as we grow old.

“The roots that we have, we continue to have those. But then you go beyond that and you evolve through the layers of your lifetime and that’s why you see a lot of layers in my work too. They’re all layers to your life that create the person that you are today.â€Â

The most recent collection is a combination of her past series with her latest. In the piece, “New Life is Waiting,â€Â Imperatrice depicts herself as a chair growing roots which are extending into the ground.

“I think certainly there is identifiable imagery and it’s probably very symbolic of what she’s trying to do,â€Â said Robert Ogata, fellow Fresno artist and friend of Imperatrice. “So it became a certain type of symbolism in the work itself whether it be ladders or chairs or mounds. I think there is something beyond what you’re actually seeing.â€Â

The inspiration behind the series also impacted Imperatrice personally.

“For me it was a personal journey through the art pieces,â€Â Imperatrice said. “It reminding me of whether or not I’m choosing to evolve and challenging myself as an individual. Am I shifting my own boundaries?â€Â