I begin my artistic process with a synthesis of the images and moments captured in my internal collection. After choosing a few of these more emotive elements as the focus of my work, I compliment them with formal principles such as composition and color palette to construct a narration in my painting. My goal is to produce technically strong art with elements of human simplicity, while keeping art accessible to both the learned eye and the amateur.
My work is currently divided between two poles- figurative oil painting based on our physical and metaphysical place in the world, and performance art based on my experiences as an immigrant to France.
The first theme is composed of a series of oil paintings titled "We on the Horizon" These pieces depict silhouettes looking skywards, jumping and dancing on horizons, or standing against sunsets. Silhouettes universalise figures and situations, thus allowing me to broaden the subject and continue to represent our physical and metaphysical place in the world. The horizon is an image of hope; a common desire that has never been more relevant and brings together all people across borders.
The second part of my work is similar to research. Through performance, I seek an expression of my experience as a woman that lives in a "foreign" country. My childhood was spent between California and Papua New Guinea. After immigrating to France in 2005, I began to realise the depth of my sensitivity to the impacts of nationality in the global society in which we live. I have begun to make video installations of performance pieces (La Tour Epinière) as well as community projects (An Electric Box for the Neighborhood) that deal with immigration, language, and the refugee situation in Europe.
All the while, my work has asked for answers about why we are who we are. I hope it settles certain accounts. And yet, seeing a painting completed and hung, or a photograph of a performance, always gives me the sensation that the question is only asked, and the viewer is there to answer.
-Beth Anna