Medium: Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

Dimensions: 4ft x 6ft

MFA painting: Gallery show in October, Annex show in November

Some art is attractive and comfortable, like fruit bowl still-lifes or watercolors with trim sailboats. Often there are no hidden meanings in art. The apple is just an apple, and the wave is frequently just one in an ocean. Paintings are sometimes created with no purpose other than the aesthetic.

This isn't one of those paintings.

Somer Hahm, 25, from Missoula, Mont., is a painter who creates abstract representational art. Every shape in her painting has a specific implication to her.

This alone is not miraculous because artists often find meaning in their work that is lost to their audience. The incredible feat of Hahm's work is that her symbolic shapes are universal in design and organization, so everyone can look at her paintings and see anything that means something to them.

Additionally, the composition of her pieces is organized with balancing shapes and appealing color relativity that makes it have surface appeal that fans of seascapes and fruit bowls can appreciate.

Her colors are brilliantly vivacious, from the cotton candy colored bag in the foreground to her truly blue skies. She uses both complementary and analogous colors in a manner that seems both innovative and ancient.

The highly saturated colors are child-like, channeling memories of youth with hues of crayons, candy, and cake icing. Her shapes, on the other hand, are organic and without modern frames or edges. There is a loose freedom to her work that comes from years of practice and re-innovation.

"The audience is first connected with her colors and then they find their own connections with the symbols," said Hanna Stevenson, Hahm's friend and colleague.