Rigamarole Press

Artist Statement
by Amy Newell

In general, I think of my work as an attempt to catalogue my life. I treat the art as a visual journal. My images are autobiographical and the concepts come from my memories (both old and new) of events and happenings that make up who I am. Sometimes the images evolve around a specific personal event, meeting or conversation. Other times the ideas are more about memory and communication in a general, universal way.

I have a tendency towards objects with a history. I am seduced by a worked, worn surface. I am drawn to matter with a high survival factor. Often in my work I go through a process of remove and replace and remove and return and replace, continuing until in some unexplainable way the work tells me it is done. I build my images both literally and figuratively. They begin with ideas of personal and/or communal recollections; these are their springboards. But inevitably there comes a point in each piece where the conceptual takes a back seat to the formal. My eye and hand take over and issues of color and composition become most important. It is not so important to me that the viewer is able to decipher my cryptic code and arrive at some hidden message, I am not sure one exists. What's important is that they stay and look, peeling away each layer and delving under the surface.

 



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