Avery's Artist Statement

I work in a variety of 2D media, almost always representationally, and am interested in this translation from a real area with depth to a fixed and flat image. I generally prefer using graphic shapes over linework, so I like to draw with materials that make it easier to lay down large areas at once, like charcoal or highlighters. For much of my work, the material is mostly a means to an end, but in printmaking and-more recently-collage, I've been enjoying what the physical properties of the medium bring to the image. That could be the texture of the wood, the torn edges of paper, or any written/printed content already on collage materials.

Almost all of my work is about the figure, though I've been starting to explore environments. At this point I typically work from life, sometimes using photograph references or imagination. While I do sometimes draw more detailed portraits, my pieces depicting the whole figure-or most of it-are almost always simplified into bigger and more open forms and are more connected to the environment around the figure. Open forms and the occasional use of mirrors in my imagery as metaphor for reflection and disconnect help communicate the ideas of identity and amibguity that I'm interested in.

The idea that people's identities are not definable, even by themselves, leaves a lot of room for me to explore this concept in my work. I've noticed in my relationships with people-my mom, my friends, significant others, acquaintances-that everyone's understanding of others derives not only from the person themselves, but also from the relationship to that person. Leaving forms undeclared, abstracting shadows into larger shapes, letting certain contours and details be ambiguous, and even just by using my own hand and eyes to draw someone, I can portray part of this flexibility and subjectivenss. When subconsciously, the way I draw someone's portrait is affected by how I see and understand them but doesn't necessarily lock these ideas in so that every viewer gets the same impression. I'm intersted in how certain elements can carry meaning for some pople and nothing for others. These elements could be anything, from the direction of a figure's gaze to an object in the environment or even the particular way the marks are drawn. In pieces where I am not consciously considering this topic, it may still show through, but another influence on my work is my study of psychology. Particularly, learning about human perception has brought my attention to the translation of the physical world into a mental perception of it; my job as an artist is seeing past this translation back into the shapes before my eyes. I aim to draw what lies before me rather than what my mind has organized based on my vision. This is an interesting task to take on, a challenge that consciously drives much of my observational drawing. Because perception is still inherently a subjective process, I can never truly represent the objective world before me-and just like with my work about identity, this is just how I want it to be.