Emily Huffman / Artist Statement
I create art as gesture, ritual, reflective commentary, story-telling and exploration. I play between allowing and intentional making. My subject matter is related to cycles, nature, nourishment, magic, myth, mind, body, identity, and relationships.
I often work with a library of symbols. Some examples are: objects of movement and navigation like stars, boats, and oars; objects of nourishment like spoons, bowls, and seeds; and anatomical imagery such as lungs, ribs, umbilical cord, and diaphragm. When painting I utilize processes that allow spontaneity. Working intuitively, I stay open to what develops, creating fields around specific objects and drawings that are telling a story or capturing a feeling. I am able to connect to the feeling, object, and story through the dynamic and physical painting process. The finished works hold a record of this discovery. Some of my installation processes require patience and repetition to express specific questions, relationships, and ideas through materiality and collections. Others stand as visual records of a moment in time, a gesture, an assemblage, a ritual. My work is a means for me, and potentially the viewer, to deepen relationships with nature, body, creative energy, self, and others.