Audrey Bernhardt

Artist Statement

I have always been a big observer of things, a thinker of the nature of existence. Constantly pondering and turning over ideas can lead one to a perplexing place. Painting has become my process for working through thoughts and ideas. While painting I go down the rabbit hole of my subconscious and allow my mind to wander over the subject of a piece. This brings about a dreamlike sense to the works as if a distant memory or thought is being uncovered. Diving into a person or a place in nature, I think about the feeling I get and express that through color, shape and line. The viewer then can read my visual language and interpret my perspective into their reality.

I find inspiration, in the oddities of people, in the dynamics of a group of souls interacting, in the existence of things such as trees that have stood tall for centuries, and the opposition humans create between themselves and nature. The brevity of our mortal lives as well as the forever repeating patterns in nature fascinates me. I often choose to work on wood, something that was once living and already contains a piece of this life pattern. The use of melted wax, which quickly becomes a solid form, yet so easily is melted and dispersed into what surrounds it, is a representation of the ever changing flow for human interaction and the breakdown and rebirth of nature around us. Negative space and almost realistic yet not fully completed forms allow the viewer to interact and continue to create within their unconscious mind.

and my personal favorite sculpture artist http://www.ucblueash.edu/artcomm/web/w2005_2006/maria_Goldsworthy/TEST/index.html