Natalie Wadlington’s 'Pooled' explores fragility and crisis through bold and whimsical paintings

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Courtesy of Library Street Collective

Natalie Wadlington presents 'Pooled' at Library Street Collective.

If you’ve found that your emotions are less contained these days and spill over from time to time, you’re not alone.

Through painting, California native and Texas-based artist Natalie Wadlington explores existentialism, environmentalism, the fragility of human-nature relationships, and the anxiety that manifests as a result. Wadlington’s latest exhibition, Pooled, tells the story of a fictional neighborhood outside of California’s Bay Area, where humans’ obsession with expansion and control have reshaped the natural landscape.

But don’t expect to see all gloom and doom from Wadlington, as she incorporates a sense of whimsy and childlike wonderment into her colorful paintings. Water is another recurring theme throughout the pieces featured in Pooled as a way to underhandedly communicate the various ways we engage with water and our precarious relationship with the precious resource.