WHAT IS “MYSTERY CORNER?”
Artist Statement By: Angel L.
(7/13/22)
I aim to connect to the PAST
while in the PRESENT
to create + protect the FUTURE
Re-creating a work of the past connects me to the original artist. Connecting to artists of the past century creates a link not just between us, but the time period in which the reference was created/captured. I connect to vintage 20th-century media by feeling the remnant feelings of loneliness, the feeling of creating in a dark room alone.Wondering the streets with a camera, hoping not to be seen while capturing the beauty and strangeness of modern life. Many people who capture the beauty of the strange fail to see the beauty of their own “strangeness”. I struggle with this daily, as i’m sure most of us do.
With inks, paint, pencil, digital illustration, and printmaking I add light to the dark. Add color in ways you would never expect to see in the natural world. I create artwork in hopes that it challenges how you’ve been trained to see and respond to everything. I want to always challenge what we all think we know. When we start to see the beauty in the strange, in what we think is “dark” - we begin to see it in ourselves.
We construct a home inside of ourselves
Filled with lots of secret hallways
Vacant rooms
And doorways leading to nowhere
Just to hide
And feel comfort in not being seen
A place to house all of the things we were taught to hide
Taught to pack it up neatly in a corner
A mystery corner in our brain
Tucked way deep in our subconscious
Holding us back from being our natural selves
-
What if curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat?
What if you opened up that dreary box in that dreadful corner?
Began to peel back the tape and look inside?
Don’t be so afraid of what you might find
I promise there’s treasure inside
(but you’ll have to find the map yourself of course)