"Teeth" by Victoria Dalpe, paint on canvas. 8" x 10"// Ready to Hang

Artist Statement: I love dichotomy: especially the beautiful and the grotesque, the erotic and the repulsive. The strange and the familiar. It is a human body and yet it isn’t. It is a skull, but it also may be more, or of what creature is unknown. The figure is beautiful and terrible at the same time.

For as long as I can remember I have been interested and attracted to that contrast and it is a problem I am perpetually working out in my painting, illustration, and in my fiction.

My primary interest has always been the female figure in art: from classical paintings to editorials in fashion magazines. I like the complexity of the human form, and the loaded visual imagery of the feminine form: objectified, sexualized, distorted or made ugly. Understanding and thinking about the figure forces me to be present within my own body, and I hope to the viewer of my work- thinking about their own.

That same self-reflection has attracted me to still life studies of bone. To me, each skull is a memento mori--I find it inescapable to not face my own mortality, my own physicality-- when looking at bone. It is something we all have inside of us, hidden but present. I love it’s minimal color palette and it’s complexity and texture. I can lose myself in the caves and crevices, and in the strange abstract detail and contrast.

What I hope my viewer or reader would take away from anything that I make would be a feeling of attraction and mild discomfort. I want my technical skill and point of view to be clear, and for my style to come through on any medium.

Victoria Dalpe
victoriadalpe.blogspot.com
http://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Dalpe/e/B00GKT7JN6