Artist Statement
My work centers on a single image:
the Chree, a chair-rooted tree.
Each Chree stages the collision between two forms of memory. The tree represents organic consciousness: rooted, adaptive, and constantly growing. The chair represents constructed memory: the systems we build to preserve, organize, and define experience. Together they become a hybrid organism that occupies uncertain territory between the biological, the psychological, and the imagined.
The Chrees are not a fixed symbol; they are a visual language. I return to them across painting, works on paper, sculpture, and installation, not to repeat an image, but to discover what else it can say. Each work expands the vocabulary, revealing new relationships between memory, identity, perception, and growth.
I want the Chrees to accumulate into something larger than any individual painting. Over time, they become an ecosystem of ideas with their own internal logic and mythology. My ambition is to build a body of work that rewards sustained attention and leaves a lasting contribution to contemporary painting.
Bio
Mandy Mooneyham is a visual artist based in Paragould, Arkansas, working in painting, works on paper, and sculpture. Her practice centers on the Chrees—chair-rooted trees that serve as a recurring visual language through which she explores memory, identity, and the relationship between organic growth and constructed experience.
Entirely self-taught before studying Fine Art at Arkansas State University, Mooneyham developed her early practice through careful study of the Old Masters before expanding into surrealism and conceptual art. Study abroad in Florence, Italy deepened her understanding of Renaissance painting, while time spent in Japan fostered a lasting appreciation for the cultivation and shaping of trees, influences that continue to inform the Chrees today.
Since first appearing in 2009, the Chrees have remained the foundation of her work. Rather than functioning as a fixed symbol, they form an evolving body of ideas that she continues to develop across multiple mediums. Each work expands the vocabulary of the Chrees, exploring new psychological, biological, and surreal territories while remaining rooted in a singular form.
Mooneyham’s work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and public spaces throughout Arkansas. In addition to her studio practice, she has completed numerous public art commissions and community mural projects that have become part of the visual landscape of her hometown. Alongside her work as an artist, she serves as a UX/UI Director, bringing the same attention to structure, systems, and human experience to both disciplines.
She continues to live and work in northeast Arkansas.