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By: Ella Mae Vickerman

Artist Statement 

I describe my art as a cityscape on a bad trip. Imagine your everyday world shifting in front of your eyes; colors are changing and walls are moving making a psychedelic, chaotic, and overwhelming cityscape. The use of geometric shapes and lines creates structure that symbolizes architecture, while the use of colors and layers that overlap each other drives your mind crazy. Shapes form the structure within the piece, whereas the overlapping creates chaos. I like to create things that you can’t stare at too long because it might hurt your eyes or give you a headache, giving that illusion of a bad trip or psychedelic feel.

Music in my ears, a million thoughts swimming in my mind, and a blank page in front of me is where I begin my practice. My mind wanders to space, around the corner and back when I am making. I get started by making a single line and that line defines the rest of the piece, and where it goes from there is up to my hand and not necessarily my mind. Although my hand does all the work, the millions of thoughts on my mind are what is reflected onto the page. My work resembles my life story and how I got to where I am today, while reflecting the intersection of chaos and order. I like to create designs out of combined shapes and lines.

My creative practice includes graphic design, drawing, and painting. The main focus in my practice is color and line. I explore the use of color as a way to express emotion to connect the viewer. My art is abstract using shapes and lines that portray different emotions and feelings. The purpose of my art is to evoke emotion in the viewer.