Crush of the Week: Amy Bennett

Every Second Counts'

Oh, Amy Bennett, how I love thee. You are endlessly talented and insightful, and I absolutely love how in touch you are with the complexity of human emotions and relationships. I could spend hours talking about all the meaning I interpret in your beautifully lonely, and sometimes downright depressing, oil paintings. But I will stop myself here and let you speak for yourself...

"Working with common themes such as transition, aging, isolation, and loss, I am interested in the fragility of relationships and the awkwardness of a group of people trying to coexist and relate to one another."

'We Can Never Go Home Again'

'Losing  It'

"The paintings are glimpses of a scene or fragments of a narrative. Similar to a memory, they are fictional constructions of significant moments. I am interested in storytelling over time through repeated depictions of the same house or car or person, seasonal changes, and shifting vantage points. Like the disturbing difficulty of trying to put rolls of film in order several years after the pictures have been taken, I hope the collective images suggest a known past that is just beyond reach. One of my challenges is to invite the viewer to form his or her own connection and narrative so that he may empathize with the occupants’ seemingly mundane existence."

'Cold Compress'

'Up To Our Necks'

"For my previous project I constructed a fictional model neighborhood. I considered who lived in each home, their family dramas, and the way their private lives might spill into view of their neighbors. The model became a stage on which to develop the psychological implications of belonging to a particular family, with all of its dramas, struggles and familiar routines. As I transitioned my model into winter, snowbanks of increasing depth seemed to fortify a sense of isolation and quietness."

'Coincidence'

'Vacationland'

'Heaven Help Us'

'Trespassers'

Thank you Amy for being my Crush of the Week. You've not only satisfied my voyeuristic side, but helped me realize I'm not the only one grappeling with the "fragility of relationships and the awkwardness of a group of people trying to coexist and relate to one another." You are awesome.