ARTIST STATEMENT
As an artist with anxiety, I’m frozen. I struggle with outside forces in the world, as well as personal, internal trauma that wrestles with my mind, breath, and insides. The heaviness is smothering, and yet, I’ve decided to continue to sit here and make paintings and collages. It’s taken me a while to combat these demons through my art-making process. I’ve discovered sewing and collage to be especially soothing. The remedy for me, is movement. My body seeks movement; my hands seek process. My soul craves beauty; my mind needs an escape from doom-scrolling on my phone, replaying the past and worrying about the future. To remain present, I move brushes, cut paper, and piece things together.
Repetitive themes within my work are rounded arches and niches which reference shields or protection. I’ve been playing with these shapes as I think about my son. As a mother, I’m wielding my shield to protect him from monsters, both real and imagined; sometimes the shields are for myself, too. The color blue is also repetitive in my work. The author, Rebecca Solnit, says it best: “”I have been moved by the blue at the far edge of what can be seen, that color of horizons, of remote mountain ranges, of anything far away. The color of that distance is the color of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire, the color of there seen from here, the color of where you are not.””
Within my work, I seek balance, a calm, or peace, despite the track that swirls around in my head. My collages and paintings embody an expansiveness, which I aim to remind myself that I can have within my own body. While collaging, sewing, or painting, I’m able to escape through movement; a moving meditation. Repetitive processes feel like a balm to my frayed nerves. At times, I may not know what the next right thing is, but I do know I can keep rearranging bits and pieces, with endless possibilities (dare I say, hope) to create new things that light up my whole self, mind and body.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Amanda Crary lives in Watertown, WI, which is between Madison and Milwaukee. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art and Curator of Galleries and Collections at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. She received her BFA and MA from Minnesota State University, Mankato and her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Amanda is a mixed-media artist. She makes paintings, collages, cyanotypes and works on paper. Much of her current work explores themes of motherhood and the tumultuous but beautiful world.
© Amanda Crary Gallas