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