Julia Kidd
Artist Statement
Storytelling is the foundation upon which our society, culture, and livelihoods are built. In my artistic practice I create visual narratives that entice the viewer through exploring the all-consuming facets of human nature, such as passion, ambition, and fear. I primarily work with oil and acrylic paint on canvas, but when materiality can clarify and further develop meaning, I engage in multimedia work including fabric, cake, or other paint agents such as gel medium, marble dust, and turpentine. Color relationships play a large role in my work, creating optical illusions, conveying meaning cultivated through historical reference and psychological associations, and giving life to otherwise static imagery. My motivations rely on the subversion of well-known literary and visual symbols, reinterpreted in order to explore contemporary societal issues. My process tends to evolve from my own writing to visual collage, and then coalesces into the final piece, as exemplified in my CAKE and Fairytale Portrait series. I explore painting narratively in a surreal style, engaging in dialogue with current events and offering new perspectives on old tales in pursuit of those deep desires that drive us to both greatness and madness. By placing my work at the juncture of the literary and the visual, the figurative and the emotional, and the past and the present, I aim to share both my experiences with the viewer as well as my hope for the future.
