Grace Summanen
Artist Statement
My work blurs the lines between high and low art by using everyday objects and materials. I draw with #2 pencil or sharpie. I create my painting surfaces with fabric. I mold this fabric with house paint. My installations include plastic bags, toilet paper tubes, & fabric. These materials are familiar to me and ground me in my history. We live in a mass-producing, consuming, and purging society. I am not interested in judging this but reflecting it. It is a part of who I am, who we all are.
In an art historical context as a trained painter, I am pushing the boundaries of painting by using dimensionality and non-traditional materials. Definitions and rules can often be limiting and inaccurate. As individuals, we are full of contradictions of thoughts and actions. I am embracing this through material play. The materials I use do not stand as I find them but are transformed with paint into something else, by doing this the viewer is confronted with new possibilities for common objects. It changes how they think, to see the magic, the beauty in the mundane. It also underscores the transformative qualities of paint.
Currently in my relief paintings I use fabric as a means to explore texture, line and movement. I have used curtains, blankets, and scraps from other projects. The fabric I use has been collected by me for various reasons. Different fabrics allow for experimentation with multiple textures and paint applications. Traditionally in painting, fabric is a common still life subject; but instead of painting the illusion of the fabric, I am painting the fabric itself. This abstracts the subject matter for inspection, exploration, and transformation