Instagram: @emilyblairquinn
BIO
Emily Blair Quinn received an MFA in Painting/Drawing from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2016 and a BFA from Auburn University in 2013. Her work has shown nationally at galleries and museums such as The Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, CO, the Wiregrass Museum of Art in Dothan, AL, Viridian Artists in Chelsea, NYC, Joshua Tree Gallery in Joshua Tree, CA and Marquee Projects in Bellport, NY. In 2018, she received scholarships to attend artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency. Upcoming opportunities in 2021 include a solo show at Marquee Projects in Bellport, NY and a residency at ChaNorth in Pine Plains, NY. Quinn works and lives in Kansas City.
BIO
Emily Blair Quinn received an MFA in Painting/Drawing from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2016 and a BFA from Auburn University in 2013. Her work has shown nationally at galleries and museums such as The Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, CO, the Wiregrass Museum of Art in Dothan, AL, Viridian Artists in Chelsea, NYC, Joshua Tree Gallery in Joshua Tree, CA and Marquee Projects in Bellport, NY. In 2018, she received scholarships to attend artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency. Upcoming opportunities in 2021 include a solo show at Marquee Projects in Bellport, NY and a residency at ChaNorth in Pine Plains, NY. Quinn works and lives in Kansas City.
STATEMENT
What would it feel like to watch yourself during the unanticipated moments in your life in which whimsy turns to horror? To see the look on your face when you realize that an environment or relationship that once felt secure has become claustrophobic? To explore these questions and more, I create psychological landscapes in which figurines, dollhouses, and miniatures are metaphors for the mind. I paint disquiet depictions of surreal domestic spaces in which shiny, melting, translucent, ghostly, and fractured female figurines appear to be on the edge of a mental breakdown; their emotional and mental states are manifested through various stages of physical collapse.
Painting is an act of meditation in which I contemplate the relationship between the mind, body, and home. The domestic space is a good metaphor for the psyche because our homes are extensions of ourselves in a way that no other architecture is. They are places of comfort and control where we can be ourselves, but we all know that domesticity has a dark side. I use dollhouses in my work because they give me control over the color, composition, and lighting and because they are loaded with gender associations. Young girls are conditioned to think about their role as homemakers and mothers when they “play house.” Through my work, I examine my conflicted relationship with domesticity and the ways that women can become trapped, but I do so with compassion and hope for the future of feminism.
My process begins with a treasure hunt for figurines that seem particularly haunted, sad, pensive, strangely sexual, or otherwise easy to anthropomorphize. To elucidate for the viewer what I see in the figurines, I transform them using a variety of methods involving paint, wax, and resin and then arrange them in theatrically lit, diorama-like scenes that serve as the still lifes for my paintings. My recent work is often born from one of the following playful and subversive experiments with figurines:
What would it feel like to watch yourself during the unanticipated moments in your life in which whimsy turns to horror? To see the look on your face when you realize that an environment or relationship that once felt secure has become claustrophobic? To explore these questions and more, I create psychological landscapes in which figurines, dollhouses, and miniatures are metaphors for the mind. I paint disquiet depictions of surreal domestic spaces in which shiny, melting, translucent, ghostly, and fractured female figurines appear to be on the edge of a mental breakdown; their emotional and mental states are manifested through various stages of physical collapse.
Painting is an act of meditation in which I contemplate the relationship between the mind, body, and home. The domestic space is a good metaphor for the psyche because our homes are extensions of ourselves in a way that no other architecture is. They are places of comfort and control where we can be ourselves, but we all know that domesticity has a dark side. I use dollhouses in my work because they give me control over the color, composition, and lighting and because they are loaded with gender associations. Young girls are conditioned to think about their role as homemakers and mothers when they “play house.” Through my work, I examine my conflicted relationship with domesticity and the ways that women can become trapped, but I do so with compassion and hope for the future of feminism.
My process begins with a treasure hunt for figurines that seem particularly haunted, sad, pensive, strangely sexual, or otherwise easy to anthropomorphize. To elucidate for the viewer what I see in the figurines, I transform them using a variety of methods involving paint, wax, and resin and then arrange them in theatrically lit, diorama-like scenes that serve as the still lifes for my paintings. My recent work is often born from one of the following playful and subversive experiments with figurines:
- building custom figurines out of clay
- pouring and dripping melted wax on them
- laboriously painting intricate china patterns on them before breaking them
- partially gluing them back together
- casting them in resin and shining multi-colored lights on them
- casting them in wax and burning them as candles
- fusing multiple wax figurines together