SEDA ROSS TUNCOK
As an artist, I romanticize or exaggerate the mundane, whether it's through painting, drawing, or sculpture. Subjects of my art are either my own memories, or particular items I have a strong connection to. In both the drawing Family Photo, and sculpture Childhood Home Interpretation, I explore the experience of my youth. In Childhood Home Interpretation, the use of fabric as a medium not only lends itself to the child-like theme of the piece but are inspired by my grandmothers’ sewing skills that influenced me as a child. Through saturated blue, pink, and purple lighting and use of pink and purple fabrics, the installation represents my dreams, the mental places I would escape to as a child. As a juxtaposition, Family Photo exemplifies the more somber parts of my childhood. This is emphasized by the monochromatic full range of value, and the small scale of the subjects, creating distance.
The pieces grow more saturated in hue when the subjects are things or places that I have a fond connection to. An example is Landscape Study, the street view in the summer as you walk back from my hometown’s lake. A rich blue fills the sky, and the houses are pastel yellows and rusty reds. While I take my time rendering my work, there is an underlying haste to some brush strokes. The overall composition of the work is detailed and methodically displayed, but the smaller details have a simple energy to them. In those smaller subjects, such as the fire hydrant, or the cars in the background, even the grass, there is a simple enough completion to them that affixes them to the rest of the painting, while little work was done to them.
Whether it is through little hasty details, composition or subject matter, there is a lively energy in my work. It is either displayed in the potential energy of a still object or a subject in motion. MARIONETTE is subject to that. Dynamic and absurd in its composition, a pawn chess piece has been dissected into its bare components, round, beveled disks, flat cylinders, and a sphere. The pieces have been strung together to create a puppet, stretching and bouncing along the string.
Life marches forward, and what will always be utilized through our individual experiences are memories and time. With time you create memories, and your memories help you decide how to spend your time. Exaggerating these memories, oversaturating them, desaturating, abstracting, or highlighting their key elements is how I celebrate those moments. My art is a celebration of how we use that time.