Kelsey Amann

I work primarily with oils to create paintings of distorted figures set in worlds drawn from a combination of memory and reality. Oversized limbs and stretched proportions are exaggerated against dramatic perspective shifts and flat planes. Working deliberately within the language of color, scenes are painted with vibrant intensities that wouldn’t exist in real life. In doing so it is my hope to convey not just an image, but a lived experience. The figures I paint are modeled after myself as each composition begins as a conglomeration of my own past, present, and future. However I do not consider my paintings to be self portraits because as the figures come into fruition, they begin to take ownership over their imagined settings. To me they are larger than life, and I choose to convey this in the way they dominate the space of the canvas. Though this doesn’t mean they are always larger than life-size, because some of the figures may feel small and to make them grandiose would be falsifying their own truth.

Caught in action, the figures are in an in-between state of childhood and an unknown future, where the only constant is change. Awkward bodies and bizarre settings compliment each other to balance notions of pleasure and discomfort, and in this strangeness is belonging. Some figures peddle bikes too small for their bodies, others return home to the desert only to bear the heavy weight of the sun that once felt so safe. Focusing intently on themes of space, connection, and alienation, the paintings grapple with life through the digital age. Life before the present moment could be lived between two mediums, and the psychological effects of always perceiving whilst being perceived. With an endless surplus of dream lifestyles and a constant hustle for something better, something more photo-worthy, these paintings are my way of contending with the now and recognizing the past, even when it feels like time and memories are constantly slipping through my fingers.