A Carbon County artist is one of 86 Pennsylvania artists featured in the prestigious Art of the State 2023 exhibition.

Yvonne Wright, a multimedia artist from Jim Thorpe, is featured for her painting “Innocence Lost.” Wright owns and operates a small art gallery, Studio YNW, at 100 West Broadway in Jim Thorpe showcasing primarily her own works.

Every year for the past five decades, the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, together with the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, presents the Art of the State exhibition as an annual juried event open to artists and craftspeople across the commonwealth.

This year’s exhibition introduces 86 works by 86 artists from 29 counties, selected out of 1,915 submitted works from 559 artists in various categories from paintings, works on paper, photography and digital media, to sculpture and craft.

“Innocence Lost” is an acrylic on canvas, 16 inches by 20 inches created over a period of three months and completed in the early 2021. It symbolically articulates the artist’s fears about the world changed by the global pandemic and narrates the psychological implications of life in isolation during mandatory lockdowns.

Wright says, “It was especially detrimental to children, when the measures designed to contain the disease impacted their mental health with long months of separation from their peers and many family members. The girl in the painting doesn’t seem to fear the rat, playfully holding it on her shoulder as if it was her pet. And yet, the rat left a small red mark on the girl’s index finger alluding to the most commonly, and historically believed facts about plagues being spread by rodents.”

The background of the painting reflects the artist’s earlier visit to The Dolon House B&B in Jim Thorpe, known for its elegant antique furnishings and art throughout. She chose to set up her composition roughly in the establishment’s dinning room area, where a beautiful wooden credenza with a tall top hatch became a dramatic window frame onto the outside world. Visible through the window are distant clouds parting on a horizon, allowing sunshine and breezes of fresh air to blow over the earth in a symbolic deliverance of much needed cleansing and rejuvenating powers.

Closer to the window frame, tattered and torn sheers appear looking fresher, indicative of a new hope coming soon (the vaccines). Distant clouds contrast well with the weighty framework of the interior, almost entrapping the girl within its walls. “Her only way of communicating with friends and the outside world she once knew is by iPhone, now resting on the window ledge strangely silent,” Wright said.

Wright said that the dimensions of the painting were a bit challenging for her, because she doesn’t normally work on such a large scale, considering herself a miniaturist. She uses very small brushes regardless of the format.

“For me, a canvas this size is intimidating,” Wright said, “although I realize that sizes do matter in art, and larger paintings are more impactful at art shows.”

Wright’s studio is open Fridays through Sundays, or check Facebook for updates www.facebook.com/studio.ynw.

The Art of the State 2023 at the State Museum of Pennsylvania is in its fourth month and ends Jan. 7.