Chelsea Amato - OCT 2024
Chelsea Amato is an outsider mixed media artist with a maximalist folk style specializing in epoxy resin mixed media collage. Her vibrant and eclectic artwork delves into feminist themes. With a background in self-taught methods developed through years of experimentation, Chelsea has achieved significant milestones in her artistic career. Notable achievements include commissioned works for Netflix, presentations at and San Antonio's Luminaria Arts Festival and showcasing at the Affordable Art Fair in Austin. Chelsea's chosen medium of epoxy resin mixed media collage holds special significance for her, symbolizing endurance and longevity. Through her deliberate use of materials, she captures emotions and experiences in forms that withstand the test of time.
The new series “Dead Rotten Artist” reflects creation and destruction, strength and vulnerability, rage and resignation, and the dreamer nostalgic for the past. With inspiration from Japan’s “Dondoyaki,” a ceremonial burning at New Years to symbolize cleansing, the artist creates a number of self-portraits imagining herself and her past as a pyre. The image of burning echoes the historical persecution of witches, the collection also depicts women being tied up & hung, further emphasizing a theme of woman as object in destruction. The motif of women monsters highlights the dark aspects and shadow self of womanhood. Men are portrayed in this series as antagonistic and the dynamics of partnerships are explored. Some questions explored in this series: “What is rotten?” “What grief is productive” “What is natural/normal" "What is the shadow self of femininity" “What darkness can be embraced" “What darkness should be destroyed”?
