“The Secret Gardens of My Mind” is a solo exhibition by Justin DeMattico that explores themes of solitude, memory, and emotional distance through a series of 21 sequential paintings. Set within a lush, imagined paradise, these works depict a world without living people—only wild animals, overgrown landscapes, and marble statues frozen in time.

At the heart of this visual journey is a blue bird, a symbolic guide leading viewers through the artist’s inner world. Each painting serves as a waypoint in a narrative of introspection, where beauty abounds but connection remains elusive. The only human figure to appear is the artist himself—isolated in a world where others have turned to stone.

Blending personal reflection, spiritual resonance, and symbolic storytelling, The Secret Gardens of My Mind invites viewers to wander through the landscapes of the artist’s psyche. It is a poetic meditation on the longing for closeness, the weight of aloneness, and the quiet search for meaning in the spaces we create within ourselves.