Miriam Traher

Ever since she was a little girl, Miriam Traher wanted to paint and tell stories. Not knowing where to begin, she created a children’s clothing line, designed and built her family’s home, stained glass, and planned her garden. But something drew her back to painting, and so started the brush strokes that marked where she was meant to be. Miriam Traher is an emerging self-taught artist who jumps into her work with inquisitiveness and courage, embracing passion and authenticity. Her process starts with nine layers of paint and paper sandwiched together. The interaction of paper and paint combines to create a unique surface, unstable and vulnerable to the final step of deconstruction with water and various tools. She is inspired by time, use and life. A rusted old car, faded cracked plaster walls, and flaking paint. A graffiti mark, bright red lipstick, a shiny handle or a fresh coat of paint. The combinations of the old and new. Traher is constantly working to contrast space and form, and is continually drawn to line and colour, and the struggle to find the balance, “Colour is my language; marks and shapes are my words. I speak with my hands; I paint what to say what I can’t put into words”.