Making A Way | Perspective
Artists: Kamari Carter, Natalie Christensen, Skye Gilkerson, Chloe Ilene, Stacy Isenbarger
Statement
A desire to both hold on to and let go of our past influences — our sense of place, our complex grounding — drives my mixed-media practice. Material collisions quietly speak to tensions we have with seeking comfort and understanding place. Used in both expected and unexpected ways within one artwork, contradictions of form and media are crafted to communicate human struggle within ourselves.
As forms seem to pull themselves together or break apart, they act as stand-ins for complex personas confronting their environments. Visually these material-driven paradoxes can confuse viewers due to their orderly nature, but the tightness of craft makes the tensions within them quickly felt, yet mysteries for us to ponder further. In this way, material contrasts and connections act as clues. From upholstered forms, needle work, and velvet to concrete, tree branches, and rocks, I seek ways to express complex negotiations with our edges — our reaches, our landings, our thresholds, … our sense of home.
Bio
Stacy Isenbarger is a multi-award-winning educator and prolific mixed-media artist driven to strengthen a more dynamic, connective community through creative exchange. Stacy Isenbarger’s artworks incite viewers through dynamic interplay between media, space, and iconography. Isenbarger simultaneously investigates ideas and materials, transforming the familiar into forms that challenge our assumptions of our environment and cultural barriers we build for ourselves. Her sculptures, installations, & mixed-media drawings have been shown nationally and internationally. Isenbarger received her MFA at the University of Georgia (2009) and her BFA at Clemson University (2005). She lives in Moscow, ID where she works as an Associate Professor of Art + Design at the University of Idaho. When she is not creating or teaching — and sometimes when she is — she’s usually dancing. The act continuously validates her joy of creative community collaborative space.
stacyisenbarger.com
Instagram: @stacyisenbarger
