In Layers: The Art & Identity of Seanna Noonan

Paint, memory, and the quiet power of transformation

When you first encounter Seanna Noonan’s work, before you meet her, before you know her, you feel it before you understand it.

You see strength. White lines that hold the edges. Gold that catches the light like something holy. Movement in the middle. Fragmentation and form, chaos and calm. Her canvases pulse with contradiction: bold and quiet, fierce and soft. You don’t need to know her to know she’s saying something honest. Something you feel in your chest.

Then you meet Seanna, and everything changes.

Suddenly, the work becomes a kind of mirror. The layers begin to make sense. You realize the bold lines were never there to contain you; they were there to *protect* what’s inside. The colors? They’re memory. The textures? Emotion. And in the middle, always, the unspoken journey of being human, painted in code only the heart can read.

Seanna Noonan Tapestry Series

A Language Built from Paint

Seanna Noonan creates mostly in acrylic. She pours, scrapes, and layers. Paint becomes more than material; it becomes vocabulary.

Her practice is rooted in contrast, specifically in the dichotomy of black and white. Movement and stillness. Physical and psychological. A kind of bodywork on canvas, where each stroke holds tension and release.

Her series, The Tapestry, speaks to this directly. In one standout piece, C1-C12, you can see the transformation almost physically. It’s a body shedding, shifting, and stepping forward. A figure in motion not just across space, but across identity.

It’s no surprise that Seanna, an artist living with vitiligo, paints from a place of inner change. Or that the gold in her work doesn’t feel decorative it feels earned. Sacred. A flare of possibility beneath all the layers.

She says she doesn’t quite know what inspires her, it’s just *there*.

“It sorta helps me breathe… like it’s air. And I’ll always make something.”

From Her Mother’s Brush to Her Own

Seanna was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but her earliest creative roots run through Nicaragua, where her mother, Maria Auxiliadora Oco, was born. Her mother, a vivid, magnetic presence, painted constantly, gardened lavishly, and made dresses in a home that doubled as a studio.

“She always spoke about the beautiful things she saw as a child in Nicaragua,” Seanna recalls. “There was a large patio in the middle of her house, across from Parque Central. She’d say it was the size of a city block.”

From a young age, Seanna was surrounded by color, texture, and storytelling. She remembers being just a kid and already covered in paint, declaring by ninth grade that she was an artist and never letting go of that identity.

“I remember taking long strips of paper from a calculator roll and drawing crowds of people by tracing my thumb, just pencil drawings. Or staring for hours at a jar of black and white marbles.”

Those moments, those early images of contrast and repetition, show up again and again in her work, not in a literal sense, but in a deeply felt, emotional one.

The Kaleidoscope Connection

Seanna lives and works in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and creates from her home studio—a place as layered as her art. As a mother of two boys, she balances complexity and creativity daily. Her pieces hold space for that: both the quiet and the chaos. The boundaries we draw. The parts we shed. The transformation we allow.

She is a true Kaleidoscope artist—not because of where she studied (though her BFA and MFA from UArts and SUNY Purchase, respectively, are notable), but because of how she sees. She’s experimental. Bold. Honest. She welcomes contradiction. She wants to explore the world through many lenses—and helps others see themselves more clearly in the process.

When you hold one of Seanna’s notebooks, wear one of her hoodies, or hang one of her prints, you’re not just owning a product. You’re entering a relationship. You’re invited into a conversation about change, identity, and beauty that doesn’t scream. It breathes.

Seanna Noonan - AP-00072-2106131054-C1-16

Let the Layers Speak

In a world of over-polished, over-filtered noise, Seanna Noonan’s work invites you to pause. To listen. To look again.

Because nothing about her work is instant. It asks something of you. Like her. It reveals itself in layers.

And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

In Her Words

• Nickname growing up:** “Noodle.”

• First piece she remembers making:** “Crowds of people drawn from my thumbprints on calculator paper.”

• Biggest inspiration:** “My mom. She was always creating. Always decorating. Creativity was just a normal part of the day.”

• Why she creates:** “I don’t have a perfect answer. I just have to. It helps me breathe.”

Explore Seanna Noonan’s full collection

Prints, notebooks, and a layered vision all her own.