Featured image: Tiger Moon, Emily Candela McLaughlin, 2025, mixed media, 48 x 36 in. / 121.92 x 91.44 cm.
Emily Candela McLaughlin’s mixed-media paintings explore the themes of electricity, transformation, and spiritual evolution.
Emily Candela McLaughlin creates mixed-media works exploring energy, transformation, and spirituality, using collage and paint to reflect on consciousness and light.
Through her dynamic layering of collage, oil paint, and acrylics, McLaughlin captures both the physical and metaphysical energies that shape human existence. She weaves together personal experience, cultural symbolism, and abstract elements to reflect the interplay between light, energy, and spiritual awakening.
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Electricity/ La Mano Poderosa, Emily Candela McLaughlin, 2010, oil paint over collage on canvas, 12 x 24 in. / 30.48 x 60.96 cm.
This 2010 oil painting over collage on canvas investigates the duality of electricity as both an external force and an internal neural process. The fragmented, layered imagery represents the interplay between technology and human creativity, reflecting how energy moves through both circuits and our own bodies. Projected onto the Linc LIC building in Long Island City as part of See.Me’s Creatives Rising event in 2013, this piece speaks to the universal power of illumination—both literal and metaphorical. The composition’s vibrant hues and layered textures evoke a sense of movement, reinforcing the dynamic essence of energy.
Spirit Lights, Emily Candela McLaughlin, 2014, oil paint over photo collage, 24 x 24 in. / 60.96 x 60.96 cm.
Completed in 2014, Spirit Lights is an introspective meditation on death and the delicate balance between the physical and spiritual worlds. The use of oil paint over a photo collage creates a dreamlike texture, reinforcing the surreal experience of grief and transformation. Moths, a symbol of transcendence and fragility, flutter toward a central light source, symbolizing the presence of spirits and the guidance of ancestral energy. High ridges of paint in structured rows emphasize the pulsating energy within the composition, making the piece a powerful reflection on mortality and ethereal presence.
Evolving Consciousness, Emily Candela McLaughlin, 2022, mixed media on canvas, 24 x 48 in. / 60.96 x 121.92 cm.
In Evolving Consciousness (2022), McLaughlin employs mixed media, including oil, acrylics, spray paint, and collage, to symbolize the awakening of higher consciousness. The painting’s central motif—lotus flowers blooming over a deep pond—parallels the human journey toward spiritual enlightenment. The layered textures, achieved through poured and manipulated acrylics, create a sense of organic movement, reinforcing the idea of growth and transformation. The contrast between dark, abstract backgrounds and luminous floral elements conveys a sense of emergence, underscoring the idea that enlightenment can flourish even in the depths of adversity.
McLaughlin’s works explore the unseen forces that shape human perception, from the electric impulses that power thought to the transcendent light that guides spiritual evolution. Through her unique blend of collage and paint, she crafts immersive visual narratives that reflect on energy, memory, and the transformation of consciousness. Her art invites viewers to contemplate the dynamic interplay between the tangible and the intangible, urging us to embrace the light within and around us.
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Nishikigoi of Souls, Emily Candela McLaughlin, 2022, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 12 in. / 121.92 x 30.48 cm.
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