Current Body of Work Artist Statement-
Title- "Underlying Beauty"
Learning Disabilities = Abstract Artwork
2018-Present Day
Learning new topics is a difficult task, but even more so for a person with any type of learning disability. Learning disabilities cause difficulties in school and in life, but also how that person feels about themselves. This person could feel lost, incomplete, not good enough, not smart enough, and the list never ends. I understand this since I am a person that has dealt with the struggles of learning disabilities. The body of work I began started by working with positive and negative space, or the figure-ground reversal, techniques that require control and others with less control, and differences in paint viscosity to focus on drawing attention to learning disabilities. These areas all reference how a person with a disability can feel, such as lost, not in control, empty, or imbalanced. My work seems to show how a person that has felt those emotions could experience at any point. The flipping of positive and negative space, or figure-ground reversal, creates a feeling of being lost and being found, or even how a person could feel when too many different parts are competing for attention. While the different uses of techniques create more purposeful marks compared to the ones which seem to be unintended. Using the different thickness of paint, and adding other mediums to the paint, relates to the chemical imbalances people have with learning disabilities. This body of work builds upon those ideas by showing how a person begins to feel once they have been diagnosed with their disability, the lines become more apparent, the details less muddled. It is similar to how one begins to have more tools to be able to work through learning new topics. They feel more confident to be able to apply the tools to help them learn, yet they still have to push through the uncertainty, but they are more determined to move down the path.
By using non-representational artwork, it will allow the work to relate to the minimal overall knowledge of which many people have about learning disabilities. Many people view learning disabilities as misunderstood or abstract, which means they are sometimes hard to explain or understand, similar to my body of work. Each disability has a story to tell, as do each one of these pieces.
Title- "Underlying Beauty"
Learning Disabilities = Abstract Artwork
2018-Present Day
Learning new topics is a difficult task, but even more so for a person with any type of learning disability. Learning disabilities cause difficulties in school and in life, but also how that person feels about themselves. This person could feel lost, incomplete, not good enough, not smart enough, and the list never ends. I understand this since I am a person that has dealt with the struggles of learning disabilities. The body of work I began started by working with positive and negative space, or the figure-ground reversal, techniques that require control and others with less control, and differences in paint viscosity to focus on drawing attention to learning disabilities. These areas all reference how a person with a disability can feel, such as lost, not in control, empty, or imbalanced. My work seems to show how a person that has felt those emotions could experience at any point. The flipping of positive and negative space, or figure-ground reversal, creates a feeling of being lost and being found, or even how a person could feel when too many different parts are competing for attention. While the different uses of techniques create more purposeful marks compared to the ones which seem to be unintended. Using the different thickness of paint, and adding other mediums to the paint, relates to the chemical imbalances people have with learning disabilities. This body of work builds upon those ideas by showing how a person begins to feel once they have been diagnosed with their disability, the lines become more apparent, the details less muddled. It is similar to how one begins to have more tools to be able to work through learning new topics. They feel more confident to be able to apply the tools to help them learn, yet they still have to push through the uncertainty, but they are more determined to move down the path.
By using non-representational artwork, it will allow the work to relate to the minimal overall knowledge of which many people have about learning disabilities. Many people view learning disabilities as misunderstood or abstract, which means they are sometimes hard to explain or understand, similar to my body of work. Each disability has a story to tell, as do each one of these pieces.