Dina D’argo has always painted, at least on the side, until a severe horse-riding accident prevented her from going back to work full time. She sold her house in California and moved to Hawaii to recover. After that, she got married and moved to Tennessee. That relationship didn’t work out, but she is remarried now to her best friend and soul mate, a man she would have never met if she stayed in Hawaii.

Her style has changed over the years, influenced from life experiences and changing from more representational work in her 20s, growing up in Southern California, to her current, more loose style.

“Your life is a process of growth and I feel like with every new growth – whatever you want to call it, experience or chapter – I feel like the work reflects that,” she says.

“In fact, as my work has gotten less defined, it seems like people connect even stronger with it,” she says. “If you think of art as a language, it’s almost like if I leave something unspoken, the viewer has more opportunity to participate in the conversation. I don’t have to say it for them. They get it.”

D’Argo’s work is on display now at Popstart in Inglewood, 4110 Nashville Pike, with an artist reception December 15 from 6-9 p.m.

“All of my work, at its core is about our connection to nature. It all has an organic theme,” she says. “Some pieces are more abstract, some pieces are more representational, but it’s always about the earth and about our deep, profound, spiritual connection to the earth. Those are things that are really important in my work. Tying people to what we come from, which is the soil. We’re animals. I feel like that’s something that is really profoundly gratifying to a lot of people, when you feel that connection to nature.”

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