A. Aube Designs: Skin

Artist Statement

Art for me is a very tactile experience. It should engage the viewer in a very physical way. Either a physical sensation created by layers of visual texture within the piece or literal texture i.e. rough felt, soft silk, etc. My ideal show would be one where everything was open and allowed to be touched. I like my work to be ambiguous; I want my viewers to come to their own conclusions about what I’m trying to say. I thrive on the chance that is involved in making a piece; the happy-accident is something that I live for. I also use Irony in my work, all of my “blankets” are completely useless, I love that idea that something which has all these perceived connotations is turned completely around thus shedding light on the object and on the perceptions that our culture takes for granted. For me art is a window into those things which go unseen every day (the mundane), or which our culture does not want to see (the taboo).

Resume

EDUCATION
Bachelors of Arts in Art 2006
SHOWS
Members Exhibition, IGCA, Jan 1st- 31st 2007
100 x 100 Exhibition, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Oct. 28th-Nov. 26th 2006
No Big Heads, University of Alaska, Nov. 1st– 23rd 2006
Stitched Together (solo senior show), Mat-Su College, Oct 10th-18th 2006
Palmer Arts Council Pavilion, August 24th-September 4th. 2006
Fiber Arts Student Showcase, Mat-Su College, November 2005
ORGANIZATIONS
Valley Fiber Arts Guild, 2006-2007
Palmer Arts Council, 2006-2007
International Gallery of Contemporary Art, 2006-2007

Why Fiber Arts?

Some of you might be wondering why I chose something as obscure as Fiber arts, instead of painting or sculpture. One of the things that I like about fiber arts which you cannot get with any other medium, a physical closeness. We as human beings have a close relationship with cloth, so close that we don't even perceive it most of the time. Cloth has been what has allowed us to live in cold climates (like Alaska), and to keep warm at night in the dessert. Every morning we drap ourselves in cloth, and when we go to bed at night. I like the idea of using something so taken for granted. Some of my art work is perceived as being somewhat creepy, this could be because of the closeness people instictually feel towards cloth and the way that I have used it to make them feel some what uncomfortable.

Friday, March 9, 2007

Skin

This series of pieces I made this last fall for my show Stitched together. Initially these were inspired by a series of meat trays that I had decoupaged body parts which I had cut out of magazines into. I started making these Meat trays soon after my cat Neco died. These stretched pieces of "skin" with pictures embedded came soon after the Meat trays. The "skin" is essentially layers of gel medium which have built up on a piece of visquine and then peeled off when they got to a certain thickness. I then took these "skins" and sewed them into picture frames.