Alenna Marie Sandy, Chicago
Member Since May 2011
Artist Statement I am a self taught artist, none of the technical skill learned from house of guided studio instruction, or the art theory concepts to be transplanted to my canvas. I work alone, on my own, learning from books and mistakes. I find things in the world I'd like to use - images and texture that go into my file of media. Wandering around antique shops, I search immediately for old books, and especially photos, stuffed in bins: faces, houses, family reunions, babies, or blurry landscapes. Where are the owners, the lives, the stories that come from these images that I will never hear or feel? They become things I confiscate from another time – memories of never-attended parties and beach vacations, of living rooms I never sat in, clothes I never wore. Married with paint, modern magazines, drawings and stencils, I find stories that I would not bother to tell with words alone. Each piece is a page from a novel or a moment from a strange dream.
I am working in Chicago now, in a studio downtown, but I've lived around - San Francisco, Pittsburgh, North Carolina. Soon, I will be in Austin, where I'm hopeful my weird art will be well received.