VIRTUAL SENIOR SHOW: Anya Lehman
Artist statement:
This show is an exhibit comprising multimedia works, including but not limited to digital illustrations, printmaking, and painting. I incorporate ideas of systemic and societal oppression towards women and nonbinary folk as well as create work that explores psychological struggles that humans go through. Creating carving marks by scratching and cutting wood is a very meditative practice that I believe aids me in finding the true meaning of the work I am creating. Putting emotion and thought into the piece of wood as I go makes it more meaningful to me and, I hope, to the viewer as well. A labor of love. Painting for me is the same way, every stroke of the brush or smudge I place is done so, not always for a reason I know, but it always seems to be needed. Creating art is not just the end product but is also the process in which it is created. The pieces specifically in this show express social critiques on how women and their bodies are viewed along with works that represent my own identity. Each piece is standalone but come together to show who I am as an artist.
Title: "The Virgin Mary, but She’s Not a Virgin”
Medium: Woodblock relief on paper
Year: 2020
Description: This piece is a commentary on the societal expectations of women to look and present a certain way, specifically the obsession with pureness and the “ideal” body.
Title: “Thursday Morning”
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Year: 2020
Description: Figure study of nude model that emphasizes comfortability.
Title: "Mush”
Medium: mixed media on paper
Year: 2021
Description: This work is a jumble of “identity evidence” expressed through multiple mediums, untraditional tools, and layering techniques.
Title: “Desert Sunburn”
Medium: multi-layer monotype print on paper
Year: 2019
Description: Exploration of color and texture through monotype printmaking.
Title: “Just Static”
Medium: Gouache and pen on paper
Year: 2021
Description: This piece is a snippet of how it feels to have a disability that is not visible to an outside eye. A feeling of not being heard and in turn not being able to hear outside of your own mind.
Title: "Pumpkin Farm”
Medium: digital drawing
Year: 2020
Description: This image is a blind contour study that has been reworked.
Title: "Kitchen Counter”
Medium: woodblock print on kozo paper
Year: 2020
Description: A still life scene that pulls memorable items from my childhood.
Title: “Party Top”
Medium: fabric paint on vintage blouse
Year: 2020
Description: Reworked top with illustrations on it.
Title: “Scenic”
Medium: woodblock print on kozo paper
Year: 2020
Description: Two part series based on photographs.
Title: “Skull & Flies”
Medium: multi block woodblock print on kozo paper
Year: 2020
Description: Brings to light the theme of “inside out” while relating to the shared DNA between humans and flies.
Title: “Sophia”
Medium: digital painting
Year: 2020
Description: Still life.
Title: Morning Stretch”
Medium: reduction woodblock print on kozo paper
Year: 2020
Description: A social critique of female struggle through print. This reduction print aims to express the constraints that are placed on female identifying individuals, female presenting individuals, and individuals with female reproductive organs. These chains that are forced onto these multifaceted groups of people cause us to wake up each morning, trying to break these chains. We get up, we stretch, and we try to become closer to equality and freedom.
Title: “Sweetheart?"
Medium: rubber block print on paper
Year: 2021
Description: This print challenges the term "sweetheart." Women are labeled as this, generally by men, through the assumptions that they are complicit and submissive, the way society has conditioned women to be.