Amelia Monroe

Artist Statement

My current body of work titled The Nature of Mankind is inspired by the sculptures I photographed while studying painting abroad in France. I became fascinated with these majestic stone and bronze characters and as I wwweloped and manipulated the photos their “ values” began to represent the various myths of mankind to me. I have added an element of nature to each composition to create a kind of still life / portrait. Working with mixed media, I employed the technique of high contrast carbon release photo transfers from the sculptures as a starting point. I then wwwelop these images with a variety of drawing techniques to create textural details, seeking to bring these sculptural spirits to life in a new environment. These classical images of antiquity marry the purely natural forces of textural botanicals to create a dream like state that the statue re-lives in.