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My practice is an exploration of escapism through fantasy. Reflecting the desire to withdraw from social structures by roaming free in the desert or hiding among the mountains. Nature is identified as the antithesis of cultural expectation. Culture defines the limitations of our actions, discouraging prioritizing the self through social policing. We are all guilty of serving as societal agents, nudging each other back into place based on our ideology of choice. With the advent of pocket computers and the significant, inescapable role they play in our lives it’s nearly impossible to avoid this pressure. 

 

Escape is the act of breaking away, removing oneself from the current context. Collage takes a thing, breaks it free, and inserts it into something new. The object doesn’t lose its integrity, instead it establishes a new ownership over its identity. Identity is relational. Combining scraps of reality creates a new version of reality, where images take on new meaning as they respond to a new environment. When the environment requires less rigidity, it allows the thing to be free. Collage mimics daydreaming. We escape our current environment by imagining another world where everything, even forces of nature, act differently. Daydreams are expansive, lawless lands. 

 

Exploration has become an integral part of my practice. Traveling is the manifestation of curiosity. More and more my collages use photographs from personal adventures, creating assemblages of memories infused with a personal feeling of liberation. They call on times without cell reception and the need to curate an identity. Blending icebergs and sand dunes, suburban neighborhoods and coffee farms transforms singular realities into a magical, conflated existence. Free of expectation and social surveillance, one is free to meet themselves. Liberation allows for self actualization.

 

Collage is a means of creating finished artwork as well as a tool for composing paintings. Working from analogue and digital montages, I create large scale oil paintings and murals. The conceptual aspects of collage translate into surrealism through painting, furthering their dream-like quality. Painting pulls the work’s subjects even farther from the interconnected, limiting realities where they originated. As with most contemporary oil painting, my work challenges artistic tradition by allowing the viewer to feel equal to the subject.

 

Through editing and selective use of found imagery my work conveys nostalgia. In approaching escapism through imagination, my practice relies on child-like curiosity and play. Childhood is a time where societal pressure doesn’t exist and fear is whimsical. Where rattle snakes and quicksand are more concerning than weight or promiscuity. This nostalgia inspires a matte color palette, with split compliments and occasionally saturated focal points. Editing images into old photographs creates distance between the present and the work, just as painting further removes the images from reality. Questioning today’s culture contrasts this space, tethering the work to the earth. Ultimately, I seek to inspire curiosity by fostering a connection with the viewer, allowing them to envision a world they can escape to.

EDUCATION

SHOWS
2016 - present

PROFESIONAL EXPERIENCE

RESIDENCIES

PROJECTS

LECTURES

PUBLICATIONS
(Visual and written work)

University of California Santa Barbara - BA Studio Art

2014 - 2018

Sotheby's Institute of Art London - Certificate Art Marketing

2016

University of North Carolina School of the Arts - High School Diploma with focus on Visual Art

2014

Reefer Madness - Group Show - Future Shock Records - Portland, OR

2022

Power Positions: a Dismantling of Phallacies - Group Show - Elisabeth Jones Art Center - Portland, OR

2022

Think With Your Art - Group Show - Future Shock Records - Portland, OR

2022

 

Tits, Pits, and Naughty Bits - Group Show - Leicester, UK

2021

Daydreams - Solo Show - Just Bob PDX - Portland, OR

2021

Global Arts Festival - Group Mural Exhibition - Elisabeth Jones Art Center 

2021

Part I: the Era of Seclusion - Group Exhibition - Visionary Projects - New York, NY

2020

The View From Here - Group Exhibition - Elisabeth Jones Art Center 

2020

Man's Relationship with the Wild - Collaborative Show - Elisabeth Jones Art Center

2019

Neighborhood Associations Rock - Collaborative Show - Elisabeth Jones Art Center

2019

No Place Like Home - Group Show -Elisabeth Jones Art Center

2018

Encyclical: Honoring Humanity's Relationship with Earth - Collaborative Show - Elisabeth Jones Art Center

2018

Barely Gone - Group Show - Glass Box Gallery - Santa Barbara, CA

2018

UCSB Undergraduate Exhibition - Group Show - ADA Museum - Santa Barbara, CA

2015, 2016, 2017, & 2018

Reel Loud Film Festival - Group Show - Campbell Hall (UCSB) - Santa Barbara, CA

2018

Jones - Solo Show - Glass Box Gallery - Santa Barbara, CA

2016

Audio Editor - Sauce Podcast

2021

Curator - Bugs Aplenty Virtual Exhibition

2021

Art Director - Elisabeth Jones Art Center

2020-2021

Project Coordinator - Elisabeth Jones Art Center

2020

Contract Painter - Elisabeth Jones Art Center

2018-2021

Editor and Guest Reporter - League of Women Voters PDX Newsletter

2018-2019

Studio Assistant - Tom Pazderka

2017

Exhibition Design Intern - ADA Museum

2015-2016

Assistant Painter - Stars and Candy Wrappers with Stephen Westfall - ADA Museum

2015

Space A - Kathmandu, Nepal

March 2023 - April 2023

 

Duplex AIR - Lisboa, Portugal

September 2022 - October 2022

 

Art Vallarta - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

June 2021 - December 2021

Huerto Roma Verde - Mexico City, Mexico

September 2021

Penland School of Craft - Kenan Fellowship - Penland, North Carolina

July 2015

Mural - Lao Hostel - Mendoza, Argentina

2022

Poster Campaign - Drops Candies - Oregon, USA

2021

Mural - Yo Yo Yogi - Portland, Oregon

2021

International Mural x Mail - Elisabeth Jones Art Center - Portland, Oregon

2020-2021

URCA Grant Recipient - Santa Barbara, CA

2017-2018

Privacy and Feminism - Power Positions Symposium

2022

Artist Talk: Intimate Gospels - Elisabeth Jones Art Center

2022

Female Painters and the Self - Elisabeth Jones Art Center

2020

Art Dose Talks: Essie Somma - Art Dose Magazine

2020

Bloom  - Visual Art - Untitled Magazine 10th Anniversary Rebel Issue by The Untitled Space

2022

Woman Up (Digtal Collage) - Visual Art - Daydreamer by Urban Ivy

2022

 

Solo: Collage, Identity, and Personal Growth - Article - Rag Tag Magazine 

2021

Selected Works - Visual Art - Paper Bag Journal No. 13

2021

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