Pia Dugger 

“We all have skeletons in our closet”. This phrase has always resonated with me. People often wear a personal facade that pretends everything is okay. But many times, things are not okay. My artwork explores the subject of mental health and life-work balance, peeling back the layers, going more than just skin-deep. My paintings illustrate various bones and skulls, as if on display inside a natural history museum for everyone to see. The muted shades of the specimen contrast with brightly colored backgrounds, reflective of digitalization and technology, and symbolic of outside influences and disturbances. The authentic versus the artificial. I’m inspired by osteology and biology. I work in acrylics and oil, and I’m often on the hunt for reference materials to better understand the specimens I paint. While looking more closely at bones, I simultaneously learn more about myself and the world that surrounds us. Bones and skeletons are often depicted as signs of death. But on the contrary, I believe that they are the essence of life, enabling our bodies to function and move forward. Sometimes, we just need to take a closer look inside.   

E-mail: piadugger@hotmail.com