THESIS DAY!!!

Statement

I view painting as an encounter. It is a means of communicating through my interaction with my materials. In this work, I am not referencing images or objects, but am painting to explore my own ideas. When creating art, it is imperative that I have an intense connection with my materials. This connection enables me to engage in a process that is authentic to me and to the material. I am connected to a painting when I cannot tell if I am acting or reacting, if I am guiding the paint or if the paint is guiding me. In this way, through interacting with materials and embracing uncertainty, I have found a process that allows me to explore and experiment freely.

Since I am painting to explore my own mind, I am not referencing any physical subject. What is seen on the canvas reflects my choices, my routines and my subconscious thoughts. From painting to painting, patterns emerge, tracing an underlying context that I am exploring in this series of paintings and in life.


-niki

new blog

Hey, I'm making a new blog that's just me instead of paying for a website somewhere.

nikileist.blogspot.com

follow me! (and i'll keep posting here too)

-Niki

A statement of sorts, revisions

There is a certain bravery that comes from creating art in complete partnership with the art that is being created. Each previous art work dictates what will come next in the line. Each new piece acts as a conceptual filter of sorts, taking only the most pertinent information from the last creation into its existence. My works help me convey to my viewer and to myself my individual understanding of what it is to be a woman in the 21st century, of or relating to "the absence of" something (whether it be emotion, parenting instinct, anything...). Each work is an exploration of exactly how "woman" others consider me, in that I am devoid of maternal instincts that many women my age possess. My works are the physical manifestations of struggles and frustration experienced in developing an ever-changing feminist identity as an individual, choosing not to identify with a specific group and therefore find a sense of belonging amongst others who share my beliefs.