Murray State's Digital Commons

Collection Title

Amber Ryan Final Portfolio

Author/Artist Name

Amber E. Ryan, Murray State UniversityFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Junior

Date of Creation

Fall 12-5-2023

Artist Statement

My personal journey and the lived experience of women in society inspire my work. I speak to my own experiences and thoughts as a woman. I force people into a place of discomfort, causing them to think deeply about how society speaks to women and what is taught to us from birth, leaving them with thoughts that linger long after they have walked away. This gives them a window into my intrusive thoughts, traumas, and emotions. The Tulip Field speaks to the manner in which society deals with the sex industry and sex workers today as opposed to how they have in the past. I ask my viewers to confront the unrealistic expectation of uniformity and perfection, along with the commodification of women that has developed from the emergence of the sex industry from the Rosse Buurt (red-light areas) of Amsterdam, into mainstream culture.

Judy Chicago’s work, The Dinner Party, has inspired the use of floral motifs and suggestive imagery in my work as an embodiment of the sexually liberated, empowered woman - namely, Three Truths and A Lie. Exploration of Hannah Wilke and Kiki Smith’s works has allowed me the ability to explore the prescribed constructs of femininity, and sense of identity while also considering the human condition, and themes of sex, birth, and regeneration. More recently my work has trended towards the theme of identity and what it means not only to be a woman but to be a South African woman living abroad, because of that Yoko Ono and her work around identity has become a new influence on my process.

I cultivate an intimate conversation between the viewer and my work by creating on both small and large scales. On a smaller scale, the viewer should approach the work to view and physically interact with it to truly see it for what it is intended to be. On a much larger scale, the viewer joins me, as both the artist and subject, in a moment of uneasy intimacy. I create more natural or intuitively feminine forms and lines, in a selection of media, implying the presence of traditional femininity before looking deeper, unearthing a darker reality beneath. Telling tales of truth, broken trust, and deceit.

Advisor/Mentor

T. Michael Martin, Jeanne Beaver, G. Scott Cook, Sarah Martin

Description

Much of this body of work speaks to shared experiences recognizable to most women, forcing people into a place of discomfort, and causing them to think deeply about how society speaks to women and what is taught to us from birth. She confronts unrealistic expectations of perfection, the sexual commodification of women, and the impact of emotional trauma on her own creative processes. Telling tales of truth, broken trust, and deceit, she helps her viewers unearth the dark underbelly of her seemingly soft, feminine pieces.

8 of the works are fine metals(silver, copper, brass, white bronze), 3 are collages(one physical, 2 digital), 2 are made from cardboard, 2 are digital photographs, 1 is a life-size charcoal drawing, and 1 is a sculpture made from recycled soda cans.

Photo Credit

Amber Ryan Lockhart

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Ryan, Amber E., "Amber Ryan Final Portfolio" (2023). Professional Practices (ART 399). 145.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/145