ARTIST STATEMENT
As a visual artist, my subject matter addresses issues of all women’s (including all women-identifying folk and uterus owners) mental health, emotional turmoil and trauma, and the brain and body connection. All of my work searches for meaning, hope, resolution, and catharsis in relation to my own lived experience in the world, especially as a woman.
My choice of materials in my mixed-media paintings is deliberate in meaning, exploring creating harshness with subdued parts, colorful with dark, and chaos with softness. I offset representative figures and portraits against graphic collages, colorful objects, and printed elements, to explore turmoils hidden behind women who are meant to hold the weight of required composure, resilience, and cultural and societal expectations. I use a combination of metaphor and symbolism to depict frustrations, the impact of trauma, anxiety, and depression, as well as the effects of imposed oppression. I lean heavily into over-the-top color because I also want a sense of humor and curiosity in my work.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lynell Ingram is a fine art painter, mixed-media artist, and experimenter from Arlington Heights, IL, who graduated from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. She works in figurative realism combined with surreal with colorful surrealism to explore how she is affected by trauma and mental health struggles, in both a personal (relationships and community) and cultural context (autonomy, rights, expectations) with the intention of connecting to the many others who have relatable experiences.
Ingram spent 15 years working in graphic arts and illustration before fully transitioning to painting and fine arts, bringing a touch of illustrative storytelling to her work. She is listed in the All She Makes women’s artist directory, published in Kilter Magazine and the Daily Herald, and has exhibited work in multiple Chicagoland galleries and pop-up shows including most recently ‘Visible/Invisible,’ at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, IL and Mainstreet Art Gallery in Lake Zurich, IL.
© Lynell Ingram