Summer In Her Own Words

Art is created when one’s heart, mind, and soul work together in harmony. It’s the crossroads at which the human need to create and imagine meet swirling emotions in need of being expressed. Art is my alternate world – an escape hatch and a sanctuary all in one, always there when life’s struggles feel overwhelming.

As an artist, I am driven by curiosity and passion. Each canvas tells its own story in the language of paints and textures, with a new storyline unfolding in every piece. Ultimately, my work is a reflection of the parts of me that are hidden in my day-to-day life, the closest thing to a mirror for the soul.

Bio

In 2007, Summer Qureshi did something seemingly simple; she dusted off a childhood love for drawing and followed her artistic talents into entirely new creative territory. There, she discovered mixed media painting, and so began a lifelong exercise in imagination, experimentation, and personal evolution.

At first, Summer’s painting was something entirely private – a way of finding peace when faced with the confusing world in front of her eyes, and the even more tumultuous one behind them. Even though her friends rarely saw her without a smile, Summer was grappling with depression, but started allowing art to be a catharsis where words failed her.

As she began sharing her work with those closest to her, concerned questions like, “Dude, are you okay?”, quickly gave way to exclamations of, “Wait, this is really good!”. Healing is a process, but art was Summer’s catalyst and, with the use of one of her pieces as an album cover, it became something that she knew could serve others as it served her.

Today, living with her family in Chicago, Summer is busy creating private commissions and displaying her latest works at her own exhibitions. A more positive state of mind has ushered in an abstract style that emphasizes striking embodiments of texture and flow, with symphonies of color effortlessly intertwining in ways that truly feel like visual music. Every piece is its own, as are the stories hiding just behind the canvas.