Ava Copeland
My exhibition examines the many contrasting curiosities of life, and how each of those feelings can be drawn out of a person. While drafting my early works for this collection, I felt inspired to use curiosity as an emotional goal that I wanted my audience to reach. And so, with that mindset, I let creativity come to me in the forms of curiosity I wanted my viewers to feel. I decided to depict concepts of life and death, as well as utilizing my diverse artistic skills to exhibit a variety of different mediums and styles within my collection. I wanted my work to challenge not only myself and my own abilities, but also a lot of very intimate emotions and imagery. So I chose to curate these works to evoke the human desire to seek out and comprehend the curiosities that surround us.
Within my collection, I really wanted to make a point of using a wide variety of styles and mediums. That technique was intended to assist my theme and the way it helps impact my audience. Taking my sculpture piece “Cervidae Domus” as an example. I used a fractured deer skull as my base, and then carefully molded a miniature cityscape sprouting from the cracks. After a childhood spent foraging for treasures hidden in the creek beds I called my backyard, I gained an eye for nature’s valuables. It was that desire to discover what was hiding beneath my feet that drew me to create this sculpture; A true representation of curiosity within nature and the balance between life existing on death, the same way that mushrooms sprout from dead trees and shiny beetles coat a fallen corpse.
Another piece influenced by my youth was my woodblock print, “Curiosity’s Cabinet”. I have made many linoleum prints in the past, but I knew I wanted my print for this collection to be different. I did research and discovered the art of woodblock printmaking and just how many parts of it tie back to my theme. While originally used in China as a method for printing text on paper, woodblock printing migrated to Japan and flourished into a unique artform. The oldest examples encapsulate a beautiful period in Asian culture that I felt greatly inspired to connect with. So with that on my mind, I poured my heart onto my block and carved with patience and a delicate hand. Throughout my whole process, I planned to execute the full lifecycle of a block print. Completing the carving and displaying my best print as my final product. It wasn't until I was finished with my block that I realized how much more value lay within the wood I had labored over for so long than what the wood could create in mere moments. So I chose to break the standard for printmaking, and display my carving as opposed to my final print. I am so proud of the statement it makes amongst my other pieces. Even though each of my works across my collection were created with different mediums and inspirations, they all still come together to create a lasting impact on my viewers.
When planning my method of display, I knew I needed to focus on a few important details. First being the aesthetics of the arrangement. It looked best to have my largest piece in the center, with my smaller ones evenly spaced on the sides to help draw the eye across my whole body of work. It was also important that the actual contents of each work were organized. A motif within each of my pieces is the representation of life and death, so I choose to have my “life” pieces on the right, like Stitched in the Womb, The Whispering Lilies, and Curiosity’s Cabinet. Those works all display a celebration of life in some way. The rest of the pieces all get hung on the left, intending to represent the transition between life and death, with each side juxtaposing the other. Everything about my collection was done with purpose and intention, all with the desire to bring my audience to be as curious and intrigued with the world and themselves as I was while creating this exhibition.
Cervidae Domus
Apoxie sculpt on white-tail deer skull
40 x 17 cm
This sculpted piece was created with the intent to display the symbiotic relationship between life and death in nature. It relays the same message as moss flourishing on a fallen tree, that life will always appear where death is present. The whimsicality of this work is undeniable, with the structures appearing as if the cranium had grown that way intentionally. It was heavily inspired by Brooke Weston's sculpture techniques. She uses real skulls as well, and builds entire cities within the bone with extreme attention to detail.
Human
Ink illustration on watercolor paper
52 x 27 cm.
This illustration may look simple from afar, but changes shape quickly as one draws near. This illusion was intended to provide a visual to the massive amount of memories, emotions, traumas, and accomplishments that all reside within our own individual human experiences. We are each so packed full of impossibly different thoughts, feelings, and opinions, they end up feeling almost like little people bustling around. This style of illustration was inspired by Richard Berner and his expertise at creating big drawings out of little ones.
Stitched in the Womb
Thread embroidery on fabric
No one can deny that the creation of new life is an unmatchable miracle. This embroidery was created with the intention of capturing the process of a little human slowly growing inside their mother’s womb. The stitches being placed on such a small surface represent both the fragility of a growing life and how small we all once were. The inspiration to embroider an ultrasound image came from my cousin who fell pregnant as I was planning this piece. Her and I shared so much excitement and curiosity for the new life coming into our family, that I knew I wanted to convey that feeling through my art.
Winter Solstice
Acrylic painting on canvas
93 x 63 cm
In nature, life and death interact with each other without the fear that most humans have. This painting was intended to strike my audience as a peaceful and quiet moment that shows the balance that exists between the raven and elk. I was heavily inspired to paint this scene by an old black and white photo with the same composition. However, that photo was a lot more gorey and the snow made it look almost ominous. So I did what I could to take the image and restore peace and symbiosis between the creatures.
The Whispering Lilies
Mixed media collage on canvas board
20 x 25 cm
This bright collage contrasts the rest of my collection with it’s saturation, but is still unified in it’s message. The flowers featured are all beautiful, resilient, and fragile lilies dancing in the sunset. These figures are meant to represent strength and delicacy and how they work together to create beautiful flowers and beautiful people. This representation of pastel colors and powerful females was inspired lightly by Mab Graves. She takes great pride in painting lovely young girls doing powerful things, and I am proud of how my creativity interpreted that.
A Sienna Study
Acrylic triptych on canvas
38 x 30 cm
With the intention of mimicking traditional entomology mounts, this acrylic tryptic displays an intricate unity through colour that appears in our natural world. I used the same colour pallet for each insect but painted them as true to their living counterparts as I could. The style of these pieces were inspired by Nicole Parish, an incredible oil painter. She was diagnosed with autism at a young age, and uses entomology and art as a way to express herself. She is incredibly inspirational to me and making these paintings in her honor brought me great joy.
Curiosity's Cabinet
Woodblock print
20 x 25 cm
This carved block of wood is very unique amongst the rest of my exhibition in a few ways. Not only is it an odd mix of 3D and 2D art, but it is a very untraditional way of displaying a print. After putting so much energy and care into carving my wood block, pulling the final print felt very unsatisfying. Showcasing this raw piece of my process was a perfect addiction to my collection. It was inspired by the primitive beginnings of block printing in China and Japan through the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907). The intricacy and amount of detail was something that fell very important to include in my adaptation.