Artist Statement

     I strongly believe that art is the universal language that everyone can understand and communicate through.  Art should be bold, honest, imaginative, expressive, and impacting without the fear of disruption or rejection. 

     It is common for people who consider themselves "non-artists" to look at a piece of artwork and immediatley shut down saying, "well I don't understand it".  As an artist I am communicating with you, I am connecting with you, and I am even speaking for you... all you have to do is open your mind and listen in order to "understand it".

 

"Consciously Imperfect" , 2011:

     An exhibition of female portraits exploring beauty, perfection and the search for self identity by fourth year visual arts major Amber Buyting. What is Beauty? Defined beauty is “the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind”. In actuality, beauty signifies high expectations, unrealistic ideals and made up truths. Through society, it has become a body sculpted, controlled and managed. Beauty has become unknown, nearly indefinable, and lost.The subject of beauty, perfection and the search for self identity is something that I believe everyone, or almost everyone, can personally relate to. I, like many others, am a person who has struggled so much with the ideal “correct” image of perfection and striving to achieve it. Because of these experiences as a studying artist my works tend to focus around the steady exploration and idea of social construction surrounding societal beauty, self identity, and control.

     My painting technique is loose, raw and has been described as “muddy” and “ugly”. I chose to paint in this style to mimic real beauty. Natural is not flawless and it is not perfect, if there even is such a thing, but it is arguably beautiful. Consciously Imperfect is a collection of portraits displaying both natural, everyday women and a series of identifiable female imagery that is so over produced we as a society are almost blind to them. This collection inspires to draw attention to the damaging effects women are faced with and the illogicality of expectations revolving around unattainable representations of perfection