Montressa Hammon is a self-taught artist whose passion for art blossomed on social media after she experienced a stroke in 2020. Feeling particularly inspired by dynamic paint pouring style that vividly captured her emotions through the interplay of colors, she began practicing various brush and blending techniques that helped develop her oil-like style of painting using acrylics.
Montressa began paint pouring just two months after her stroke and quickly progressed to creating abstract pieces with heavy body mediums. “The feelings of confinement during COVID, combined with my medical emergency, sparked a longing for the beach, igniting my passion for seascapes,” she recalls. “As I realized my emotional understanding had faded, I began to paint subjects that held personal significance, like James Brown, who was my grandfather’s favorite artist. This experience deepened my fascination with capturing people and their facial expressions to help identify and acknowledge my own emotions.”
Montressa compares the beginning of her painting journey to a child experiencing a playground for the first time—a delightful mix of wonder and curiosity, making it an exhilarating experience. “Painting has been incredibly enjoyable, and it felt both natural and strangely unfamiliar at the same time. The more I painted, the more I wanted to learn about the craft, which led me to constantly challenge myself with new artistic techniques.”
Montressa uses painting to express a variety of emotions. Each artwork tells its own unique story and stands alone, even within a series that shares a similar style. “I believe that while each painting conveys its own emotions, the complexity of those feelings allows the works to connect with one another, reflecting my ongoing journey of self-discovery as an artist,” she says.
Montressa’s life experiences are her source of creativity, which is evident by works on canvas. “My post-stroke journey has allowed me to relearn complex emotions, experiencing everything from joy to outrage from a first-time perspective as an adult,” she shares. “Through painting, I can explore my thoughts and arrive at a clearer understanding of the emotions I’m feeling.”
Montressa employs the same creative process each time she creates art. She starts by finding an image that encapsulates her feelings in a single glance. “From there, I enhance the image to reflect my individual perspective, further personalizing it during the painting process to enrich the overall composition,” she says. I also like to experiment with colors, determining which hues and shades resonate best with the emotions I wish to convey.”
Monstressa has recently shifted her focus to landscape paintings, including one in particular that showcases the view from her back porch with a view of her backyard, the nearby graveyard, local homes, a church, and the wildlife and plant life that thrive in the area. “It symbolizes the passage of time and serves as a meaningful reminder of the connection between life and death,” she reveals. “Having gone through a transformative medical emergency, I’m motivated to live boldly and authentically. Life is short, and we have just one chance to create beautiful memories before we all face our mortality.”
To see more of Montressa’s art, check out her online portfolio at strokeofart.org.
