Reed Cardwell
Artist Statement
As a queer artist with severe mental illness, my intention is to raise awareness to the thoughts and feelings people like me struggle with daily. My work is intended to provoke feelings of discomfort that represent feelings people with mental illness may have. Each piece is also representative of my personal interpretation of illnesses I struggle with such as bipolar, depression, and anxiety.
I work with earthenware and using various methods of building such as coil building, solid building, and combinations. I combine organic textures found in nature that are soft with hard textures, which are juxtaposed and create conflict in the piece. The size of my work is on a handheld scale to slightly larger than handheld to give the viewer a deeper insight to the feelings behind the uncomfortable textures. Trough this use of scale, I want viewers to imagine holding each sculpture, which increases their levels of discomfort. |
Bio
Growing up in the south as a queer individual has been pretty interesting. Years of shame and guilt promoted by the morals and culture in the lovely state of Georgia has fueled my passion to reach out to people through my work. I use ceramics and sculpture to visualize my emotions, mental illness, and exploration of sexuality and gender. I use a lot of texture in my work to create these feelings in hopes that the person looking feels pushed out of their comfort zone. I love psychology, and plan to be a counselor in the field of child trauma. I like to combine my passions to create these emotional artworks. The LaGrange College senior art show will be my first exhibition. I’ve recently received my first commission and I’m excited to branch out into selling my work and gathering more commissions.