ARTIST STATEMENT
As a mother, wife, educator, and individual, I navigate daily compromises to cultivate personal identity while nurturing others. Yet, the perceived truth often conceals an illusion shaped by societal ideals. Parts of myself become stifled or invisible depending on the role I inhabit. I am both seen and unseen. The demands of maternal perfection—grueling, exhausting, and masked by illusion—are ones I often struggle to uphold. My collages explore the varied roles I embody and their impact on identity. Using family photographs as a starting point, I distort, layer, and obscure faces and forms until they are both familiar and unknowable. Only a fragment of myself is revealed, emphasizing the choices and compromises made. The act of altering the image becomes a visual metaphor for self-protection, erasure, and reinvention. By merging nostalgic patterns, figurative fragments, and contrasting materials, I seek to illuminate the fabricated roles within oneself. Shadows and light, geometry and organic form, reveal the tension between inner truth and outward façade. In questioning who I am within and beyond these roles, I re-examine the value of women’s layered lives and experiences—each distortion offering a glimpse of what is hidden, withheld, or transformed.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lori Solley is a full-time Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Kilgore College. She received her MFA from Texas Christian University, in Fort Worth, TX, in printmaking and a BFA from the University of Texas at Tyler in 2-dimensional art. Her work consists primarily of combinations of drawing, printmaking, and collage techniques. She has exhibited nationally and regionally. She has been selected as one of the Top 5 shows to see in Texas twice by Glasstire.* She is a native of Gladewater, TX, and currently lives in East Texas with her husband, two kids, and many pets. *Glasstire is the oldest online-only art magazine in the country.
© Lori Solley