Our Rainbow and Butterfly World in Progress

Author/Artist Name

Emma WilsonFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Spring 5-1-2020

Artist Statement

I have always been an artist ever since I was a child. My mom was one of my influences to become an artist because she always made arts and crafts with me. My aunt, Janet Wilson, is a very skilled self-taught painter and was also a large influence on my artistic life. I thoroughly enjoy the art of photography. I often capture photographs in black and white. “When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls.” -Ted Grant

Tara Chisholm once quoted, “Photography is the beauty of life captured.” With photography, a moment can be captured that you might not ever get back again in your lifetime. My photography is very sentimental because it’s mostly about family. I enjoy creating work that is personal to me and relevant to my life. Family is so important to me and so is being able to create work about my troubled past life experiences as well as happier present times. My past work focuses on the concept of the happiness that family brings and my current work is centered on the dark moments that I experienced as a child.

My work featured in my exhibition focuses on my family and I overcoming the impact of the experience we had with an abusive man living with us for part of my childhood. We had a house fire in 2007 which was actually a blessing in disguise because it allowed us to kick the abuser out of the house for good. The abuser always told us that we would never live in a rainbow and butterfly world, so we have now created our butterfly and rainbow world.
Look who won.

Advisor/Mentor

Michael Martin

Description

The general theme of my exhibition focuses on my family and I overcoming the impact of the experience we had with an abusive man living with us for part of my childhood. The art forms in my show are photographs and one ceramic piece. The first piece is a triptych that represents an experience that I witnessed with my mom, the abuser, and a knife. Another photograph includes an art piece that I created last semester to represent the house fire that we had back in 2007. This house fire was actually a blessing in disguise because it allowed us to kick the abuser out of the house for good. The ceramic piece is a blue vase that I created this semester. It has rainbows and butterflies on it and the sentence, “Here is our rainbow and butterfly world, stupid fucker.” The abuser always told us that we would never live in a rainbow and butterfly world, so I created the butterfly and rainbow world onto the vase as well as in one of my photos. I created these pieces to say to the abuser, “Look who won.” I want my audience to know that domestic violence is real, but there is light at the end of the tunnel if you are lucky enough to escape.

Photo Credit

Emma Wilson

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Wilson, Emma, "Our Rainbow and Butterfly World in Progress" (2020). B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499). 34.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art499/34