Artist statement:
I create work that involves interesting creatures and the evaluation of myself as a person. I constantly lose sight of what is real and what is a dream. My work blends fantasy and reality, and I design and create creatures that explore this unique state and my personal development. Through self portraits I find my sense of reality, something I did not start with before I made a painting. The creatures that I create bring the viewer into my fantastical world that lives in my head. I blur the line between reality and fantasy because it is hard to have one without the other. Nothing is complete fantasy, because so many ideas are just a manipulation of reality. I create paintings and drawings to rid myself of this confusion of reality and to put them into their place.
Artist Bio:
Alyssa Snavely is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native currently living and working in Chicago, Illinois. In June 2021 she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art, Media, and Design with a concentration in Studio Art specializing in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking from DePaul University. She works in a variety of media including drawing, painting, and sculpture. Her work explores notions of reality, blending self-experience and fantastical creatures. She has been overly fascinated with caterpillars this past year and the idea that she can use them to portray her own anxieties and frustrations.
In 2021 she was selected as an Outstanding Senior for Art, Media, and Design at DePaul University by the Art, Media, and Design professors. She also had a work selected for DePaul University’s Crook and Folly 2021 journal, the piece titled “Quarantine Day 31”. In 2020 she exhibited work at the Cards Against Humanity Gallery in a group show curated by DePaul students in Chicago, Illinois. The work exhibited was, “The Rug Creature” and the show juried by Paige Hall-Petry, Megan Phillips, and Becca Vichi. Later in 2020 she also exhibited work on The Contemporary Art Gallery Online website in the show, “2020 ALL Color Theme” with the work, “Quarantine Day 31”. This online group exhibition was juried by Michael T. Harris, Sharon Drinkard, Anisa Harris, Portia T. Webb, Dorothy Ashe, and Kelsey Hails.