Maria Lana Queen

Maria-Lana Queen never considered painting until a traumatic experience – the sudden death of her best friend and confidant – her brother.  She turned to painting as a way to transform her sorrow into a celebration of her brother’s life.  Through this personal loss she was able to unleash untapped creative power.  Maria created her own form of diary-keeping as an outlet for expressing her private thoughts and feelings.  She uses acrylic paints, oil sticks and found objects on canvas instead of a traditional journal and ink.  This to her is a discreet confidant always available to receive her private thoughts. 

The “Painted Diary II” is her most recent installment.  The seven chapters in this series represent a few of the events that had an impact on her life – some good, some bad.  The found objects and raffia wrapped around each chapter are intended to serve as the lock and key for keeping the contents of the chapters private.  She uses vibrant colors and collaged materials to represent ideas. Colors are used to personify both the similarities and the individuality of fraternal twins.  Her darker range of color with strokes of fiery orange-red represent the intense connection of two people in an intimate relationship and the darker ranges of color in her pieces represent the solemnity and seclusion that often accompanies intense reflection.  Maria manipulates the paper to create a blood-red skin-like surface with gashes to represent our human tendency to create mental band-aids and other defense mechanisms to cover emotional pain and disappointment.  Raffia fiber is used to represent the will we find to hold ourselves together and move on.

A Washingtonian, Maria has a twin sister and was raised as one of 10 children.  She received her Bachelor’s Degree in marketing from the School of Business at the University of the District of Columbia.  She is also a fashion runway/print model who has worked throughout the United States for the past twenty years.  She is currently an employee at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, serving as a Housing Revitalization Specialist.  In addition to painting, she enjoys dance, volleyball and working out.