Hailey Shen

With this painting, I wanted to capture how everything melts on the hot days of the summer: ice-cold popsicles melting to leave sticky trails on my fingers, sweat trickling down my face, and ice cubes vanishing into lemonade before the glass ever meets my lips. But even as everything softens under the heat, the summer is also bursting with color. I added drips of color across the piece to reflect the transformations of childhood summers and how even the most frozen, familiar spaces are unable to hold back the passage of time. These hot summer days serve as a reminder that the bright, sticky, and carefree moments we try to preserve always melt into memory.

20” x 16”
Acrylic on canvas