Salisha Stanley

Salisha Stanley is a visual artist working with mixed media from the village of Toco, Trinidad. She holds a BA in Visual Arts from the University of the West Indies (St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago). Her work is based on ideas referencing imagination, psychology, mental health and spirituality. She is interested in art as a form of escapism and as therapeutic catharsis, but also as a means to explore the imagination as a connection between “reality” and a spiritual, subconscious world. Her paintings are created from images that spontaneously appear in the mind like revelations. In several works, she uses collages of pictures of nature together with paint to create images that signify the connection of two dimensions, the real and the imagined. The subjects in the artworks illustrate her studies on women and psychology, and the imagination’s connection to mental health and illness. Her series of ink drawings entitled The Collection of Vintage Nudography was exhibited and acquired at the Mt. Plaisir Hotel, Trinidad. The Dreamer was recently included as part of a group exhibition at the Rotunda Gallery Trinidad & Tobago in 2022.

“I want to focus on the power of the imagination which presents itself in different ways – through spirituality, through mental health and through creativity. The imagination first appeared to me through women I knew in my family; it was a way for them to connect with God by receiving dreams and visions through their spiritual practice. Their experiences allowed me, since I was a child, to become fascinated about the mind and how it works. I have accepted the imagination and the mind as a world, as real as my material environment, as well as a tool powerful enough to control the way one would experience Life.”