Process, Uncertainty & Experimentation in the Studio - Michelle Dickson

Statement: Time and its effect on our bodies, our minds, and our environment serves as a connective thread running throughout my work. The melding of the human body and nature in my work emphasizes the dependence we have on our natural environment for survival and the paradox of our continual abuse and destruction of that environment. My work is process oriented and based in experimentation. I work intuitively: making something and responding to it, adding on and taking away, building up and obscuring. The process is connected to the content. By working in layers that allow some details to come forward while others are obscured, I’m speaking to the unstable nature of memory. I push the limits of my materials and use them in unexpected ways. I’m driven by curiosity. What will happen if I combine this with this? I take extensive notes in a studio journal to keep track of what worked and what didn’t. I learn just as much if not more from the failed experiments than the successful. The work is in a constant state of flux and change, just as we all are.