Cathy Tran - EAP Winner 2025

Drawn from my experience living as a neurodivergent, my work explores the instability of perception—how form dissolves and reassembles through the shifting lens of memory and experience. Reflections fragment, distort, and blur, revealing the limits of imagery as a system of meaning.

I approach each painting as a process of discovery, balancing structure and fluidity while navigating the tension between intention and spontaneity. My work is influenced by the world-building of magical realism in literature—authors like Jhumpa Lahiri, Haruki Murakami, and David Mitchell—as well as painters such as Susan Rothenberg, Winifred Nicholson, Francesca Molette, and Lila Holmes, who develop distinct visual languages within their work. I’m drawn to how they construct internal systems of meaning, where intuition and decision-making weave together to create compositions that feel elusive, yet are deliberate and impactful.

I begin first with speed and openness, by mapping out quick sketches using acrylic, or oil pastels— before slowing down to let the painting emerge. Layers accumulate gradually, each brushstroke informing the next, allowing movement and texture to organically shift the painting’s direction. I let the work rest, adjusting and responding over time until something appears that piques my interest and curiosity.

Light plays a significant role in my practice. I’m drawn to places where it behaves unpredictably— reflections on lakes, the glow caught between folds of petals, city lights at dusk. Since moving to the Bay Area, I’ve also become fascinated by fog—how it diffuses and absorbs light, constantly shifting the landscape into and out of focus. These fleeting visual experiences shape the refractive quality of my paintings.

The subjects that emerge in my work are often drawn from memory—impressions of places, light, and forms that have left a lasting imprint. Flowers frequently surface, recalling childhood gardens not as literal depictions, but as sensory recollections, softened by time and perception. My paintings exist in this in-between space, where familiarity and abstraction meet, mirroring the way perception itself remains fluid and ever-changing.