I make otherworldly landscape paintings that use nature as a metaphor for our emotions, mental states and life.  Through different series, I’ve kept going back to and circling the same idea:  how our constant pursuit of happiness affects our lives, our actions and the world around us.  Lately, my process includes a hybrid of Photoshop and manual sketches that are later painted on canvas in oil or acrylic.  These take advantage of color, shadows, loose brushstrokes, gestures and contrasts and are based on a reconstruction of memories influenced by my awareness of the effects of an interconnected world.  The works exist at a point of tension between abstraction and figuration that flow between light and darkness.  

I seek to question and challenge the vulnerability and uncertainty of humanity in the face of our ephemeral existence and the relentless passage of time.  However, I do so while maintaining a hopeful state of mind that both focuses and is grateful for the beauty and the random details that surround us.

- Lillianne Ruiz Truque, 2026