Exposing Darkness: An Inner Dialogue
Location
Alumni Hall North
Department
Art
Abstract
I became interested in art when I was 6 years old and my younger sister was diagnosed with cancer. As I was traveling back and forth from Iowa City to home or waiting for countless hours in the University of Iowa’s Children’s hospital hallways, I kept busy by drawing and attempting to recreate the beautiful and colorful images I saw spread throughout the interior of the building. During the few years before my sister's miraculous recovery, I was introduced to art therapy and taught how to express my feelings through art which permanently influenced my body of work. My current body of work is a visionary of the inner dialogue that is experienced by myself, exposing the eating disorder thoughts that I battle on the daily. I show these seemingly dark topics, in a bright fluorescent way through material and color scheme. The medium of my current body of work includes acrylic paint, drawing on transparent sheets, collage, and clay sculpture presented on five 12x12in. wood panels and five 5x10 in. fluorescent acrylic sheets. The fluorescent acrylic sheets make it nearly impossible for a viewer to look away and forces them to question the meanings behind the skeletal imagery and references to food. The intention of presenting the influences of eating disorder thoughts and behaviors in a bright, playful way plays part to how transparent the dangerous behaviors are to a world that is so focused on physical appearance. My work has and still does reflect pain, happiness, and healing of both mine, and those around me. My goal as a studio artist focusing on painting is to confront the things we fear most by showing the beauty that pain holds within my work.
Faculty Sponsor
Kimberly Ambriz, Northeastern Illinois University
Exposing Darkness: An Inner Dialogue
Alumni Hall North
I became interested in art when I was 6 years old and my younger sister was diagnosed with cancer. As I was traveling back and forth from Iowa City to home or waiting for countless hours in the University of Iowa’s Children’s hospital hallways, I kept busy by drawing and attempting to recreate the beautiful and colorful images I saw spread throughout the interior of the building. During the few years before my sister's miraculous recovery, I was introduced to art therapy and taught how to express my feelings through art which permanently influenced my body of work. My current body of work is a visionary of the inner dialogue that is experienced by myself, exposing the eating disorder thoughts that I battle on the daily. I show these seemingly dark topics, in a bright fluorescent way through material and color scheme. The medium of my current body of work includes acrylic paint, drawing on transparent sheets, collage, and clay sculpture presented on five 12x12in. wood panels and five 5x10 in. fluorescent acrylic sheets. The fluorescent acrylic sheets make it nearly impossible for a viewer to look away and forces them to question the meanings behind the skeletal imagery and references to food. The intention of presenting the influences of eating disorder thoughts and behaviors in a bright, playful way plays part to how transparent the dangerous behaviors are to a world that is so focused on physical appearance. My work has and still does reflect pain, happiness, and healing of both mine, and those around me. My goal as a studio artist focusing on painting is to confront the things we fear most by showing the beauty that pain holds within my work.