Natalie White

Painter  -  Illustrator  -  Woodworker

Hi! I’m Natalie, a Milwaukee-based artist currently completing my BFA in Fine Arts with a minor in illustration at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.

My work is bright, colorful, and playful, while also exploring the complex emotions that come with growing up. I’m interested in the gap between how adulthood is imagined and how it actually unfolds, often uncertain, repetitive, and in-between.

I draw on childhood imagery, using shifts in scale and dreamlike compositions to reframe familiar objects and ideas. These symbols become a way to reflect on nostalgia, comfort, and the tension between holding on and moving forward.

My recent work combines traditional painting with wooden forms to create dimensional pieces that blur the line between painting and sculpture. Rather than depicting objects, my paintings become objects themselves, layered, physical, and immersive. While the work takes on sculptural qualities, I consider myself a painter above all else. I use dimensional forms to expand the possibilities of painting beyond the flat surface, an extension of the medium rather than a departure from it.