From October 18 to November 15, the Mello Foundation at Borgo Pinti 22/24 was home to Cathleen Van Bergen’s collection, Eternal Impressions. This fall semester, she gave a lecture to FUA’s advanced painting course, centered around her new exhibition. Much of Van Bergen’s art explores the relationship between humans and technology, through her pieces such as Heading Home, Strut Piles and In the Beginning as in the End, respectively. Van Bergen’s work also investigates emotions and experiences encompassing the human condition, such as hope, freedom and opportunity in her work, Liberty. 

Born in Buffalo New York, Van Bergen was influenced by art from a young age. As the granddaughter of German immigrants, she became more creative and imaginative playing with cookie cutters in her grandma’s house. Van Bergen notes that her experiences at her grandmother’s house and carrying around a sketchbook as a child were formative experiences that influenced her to become an artist. 

“I was fascinated by all these objects that I could make into toys,” Van Bergen said. “And this was from a woman I couldn’t even speak with. I was seeing that you can make toys or you can be creative with objects that are not crayons and they’re not pencils, but I’m having fun with these objects. I learned that you can really communicate [without] even speaking and learn something from it, a lesson. I learned a great deal from my grandmother.”

Much of Van Bergen’s art is inspired by personal experiences, such as her trip to New York City Thanksgiving weekend in 2014. Van Bergen credits this weekend as the inspiration for her work, Liberty. The piece depicts a cloudy sky with autumn leaves hanging on branches near the feet of Lady Liberty. She interpreted these branches as immigrants in search of freedom, opportunity and peace. Van Bergen noted a sadness and solemnity that enveloped the atmosphere that day, and sought to depict this attitude through her artistry. 

Van Bergen was also given permission to visit construction sites of the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, California, for her collection, Wonders of Work. Through this collection, Van Bergen explores the relationship between the human condition and the world of machinery and technology. Much of her work in this collection juxtaposes human creativity and ingenuity with technological and mechanical achievements. 

“This was a terminal that was connecting hundreds of thousands of people and many trains and subways,” Van Bergen said. “It was like the heart of the city meeting, bringing people everywhere. There were parallels in life that I saw. This construction in a way, as a visual metaphor is like, ‘evolving,’ right? We’re always evolving.”

To viewers of her art, Van Bergen hopes that her work provides a glimpse into her personality and her character. She feels that as a child, she learned much about who she was and the world around her through her imagination and curiosity.

“My work is a reflection of my experiences and moments in my life that I wish to share with others,” Van Bergen said. “Oftentimes, I will choose subject matter because I want to understand and delve deeper into something I don’t understand or have experienced. My composition choices, palette, light, and surface come into play with subject matter.”

Van Bergen emphasizes the importance of carrying around a journal, sketchbook or even a napkin to record memorable moments. She credits her practice of documenting important moments with her sketchbook as a source of inspiration as an artist. 

“It’s nice to be able to put that down, whether it’s in a journal or a diary that you keep every day or a sketchbook or even writing something on a napkin, about the day. I think it’s important. I really do. I think it was important to me to kind of record those events in my life and remember some of the things I’ve seen and reflect on them, and a lot of my art has to deal with that.”

Ultimately, Van Bergen’s art is inspired by a wide variety of experiences throughout her life. Van Bergen credits her experiences at her grandmother’s house with her socialization and identity as an artist. Her collection, Eternal Impressions, remains incredibly relevant to our current moment given the rise in popularity and relevancy of artificial intelligence. During an era where much of the labor force is learning to collaborate with AI, Van Bergen’s work highlights the partnership of human ingenuity and technological achievement.