| Earnest Wicker Artist�s Statement I started my work as a hobby, an artistic outlet of sorts. From there it turned in to a way of journaling my life, my thoughts, and my feelings. In the way one would compose a journal with words, I was doing it with my art. I found that I was conveying my feelings to others after donating some of my work to a silent art auction. Discovering the combination of expressing my unseen self, and introducing others to those pieces of my experience, resulted in a creative catalyst. I am particularly interested in making someone experience a story or an advent in this manner. My work is a stream of composed consciousness, symbolism and kanji. These are a collection of jumbled images, factoids, memories, random data and confused emotion. Using layers of graphic invention - of photograph, collage, computer, watercolors and ink - facilitate thought, and bring out what an image may mean to an individual. I see each and every image in my art as metaphors. Combing the mediums potential, I can express my thoughts and emotions in a way that is not so blatant. Using darker colors for me have a feel of dreams, and of itinerant thoughts. I am attracted to this raw part of my work; I get a feeling that it is coming from a place of primal emotion. My artwork is rarely linear, but cycles endlessly with variations on a few central themes. I am going to a place were I do not have a need to involve a model to compose a piece. The human form has been a major role in my works showing the perspective of the subject in the story. Having used symbols in my art, the use of whole words has recently become equally important to me. The symbols express to me a starting point of the work, strong sense of the story, and the words convey the tone. I�m exploring the possibilities of my work formatted on a larger scale, and also in a triptych telling of a whole story. Symbolism can sometimes turn out to be too heavy; my challenge is to not let it become that obvious. I would like my work to read like Sufi poetry, with shifts of thought, hidden meaning and murmurings of spirituality. |
