Holly Farrell's art draws on personal memories, and those of other people

"I find my past beating steadily, assuredly, through my paintings," she says. "We are all a mash of memories and experiences that piggyback upon other peoples' memories and experiences—all reacting to a past upon a past, connected only by things that are constant and familiar."

Farrell’s fascination with remembrances is clear not only in her paintings, which mix familiar images with something unspoken and personal but in the title of a new exhibition this month at Godard Gallery in Toronto, Canada, Nothing Begins Today.

"When I reach out and touch something—a bowl, a book, some thread—I connect to people, places, times that I have known and have not known…all that makes me…where I come from, where you come from," says Farrell.

The artist, who’s also based in Toronto, has exhibited across Canada, the US and Japan.