ARTIST STATEMENT
With my work I seek to make the intimate and the private, public. I have PCOS, IBS-C, depression, anxiety and all their side effects- debilitating pain from the cysts, chronic back pain from everything all in the same area, shame from my body betraying me and shame that I cannot do the right thing to make myself better, and alone. I cannot be the only one to feel this way, this down. With my work I use the familiar objects such as heating pads and underwear that represent my illness to talk about the private and the intimate and make it public. I use found poetry that I hope in its starkness finds a home in peoples hearts for them to hold onto or meditate on. I hope that through the old familiar objects people can find an entrance to empathy not for me but for everyone.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
New York City based Frank Locke was born in the land of religious zealotry and witches, also known as New England. Locke then ventured even deeper into the woods to get her BFA from the University of Maine in printmaking and photography. Upon moving to NYC, Locke began experimenting with textile art after interning for the artist Lesley Dill. Since 2016, Locke has been improving her craft inspired largely by feminist artists: Lesley Dill, Kiki Smith, and Louise Bourgeois, and arte povera artists: Alighiero Boetti and Mike Kelly. Lock works primarily with found objects and poetry, cheap mass -produced materials, and the stories they tell. Locke’s work has been shown in New York City and New Orleans.
© Frank Locke