Meg Cole was born and raised in Chesapeake, Virginia, a city just twenty minutes off the shore. They currently reside in Richmond, Virginia and have received their BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Their work ranges from painting, to glasswork, to installation. They draw inspiration from artists that inform a type of nostalgia through movement and use of space.Love in any form is a recurring theme found in their work, as they try to depict both personal memories and truths.StatementI depict renderings of people, places, things, and ideas. It is easier to say that my work takes the form of nouns, both common and proper. The use of layers, alteration, and color aid in creating this world of another dimension, where objects and ideas of the past can live on. I often draw imagery from my memory, memory of a feeling. Memory is powerful, it is fueled by different feelings and different energy. Not cosmic energy, but rather the ways sunlight, caffeine, electrolytes, exercise, relationships, and emotions affect our bodies and interactions throughout the course of our lives. All of these components alter or moods from day to day, year to year, they give us strength, keep us in control of our bodies’ and allows us to live and move on. I often reflect on why I feel certain ways about the past, and I can almost always remember whether I felt in control of my own life. It starts to become an entire timeline of real-life revisions in personal completeness and self-control, an opportunity to relive another moment. I want to share my forgotten memories, as if they live on and on in another universe, and recall the perception of ways people and energy have had their effect.The potential and inability to find clear answers within what is presented is an integral aspect of my process. The purposeful decision to limit the viewing of particular aspects of my work plays a large role in creating the division between our realm and the pieces. It acts as a reminder that the work is not living within our world, therefore it is not for us to easily consume or recall. In this way, it feels less biographical and more like a random conversation about what was then and why it matters today. I aim to speak to a passage of time, and a timeless, enduring feeling. To answer the question of why the past matters today, there is strength in the ability to appear vulnerable in one's thoughts, and challenge others to do so.