Details from (top to bottom) "State Penitentiary," "Waiting on a Southbound Bus" and "St. Bernadette's Exterior"
Whitney Stansell is an Atlanta artist whose work focuses on storytelling. Storytelling paintings have roots that resemble the drawings from the way ancient native cultures recorded their knowledge through pictures. She takes personal stories she was told of her mother as a young child and reconstructs the facts through a visual form. This recording of past life events keeps the stories from extinction, yet exposes how the act of storytelling is often influenced by interpretation and environmental experiences. For example, in narrative writing we may be presented with a description of a scene yet when we read the descriptive words on paper, a personal and different picture may develop in our minds and not the exact representation the writer had imagined when describing the scene. The words are used as a process that links together our imagination and experience. Stansell creates her pictures by this same melding process. She sketches out the stories from her mother’s recount of events and intertwines them with her own experience and interpretations. She says, “I begin every painting by sketching out memories. You have to let the outside world form your imagination,” “Mine is formed by everyday surroundings.”
Stansell reminds us that story telling as well as all types of art; have endless ideas from which interpretations can be constructed.
Whitney Stansell is an Atlanta artist whose work focuses on storytelling. Storytelling paintings have roots that resemble the drawings from the way ancient native cultures recorded their knowledge through pictures. She takes personal stories she was told of her mother as a young child and reconstructs the facts through a visual form. This recording of past life events keeps the stories from extinction, yet exposes how the act of storytelling is often influenced by interpretation and environmental experiences. For example, in narrative writing we may be presented with a description of a scene yet when we read the descriptive words on paper, a personal and different picture may develop in our minds and not the exact representation the writer had imagined when describing the scene. The words are used as a process that links together our imagination and experience. Stansell creates her pictures by this same melding process. She sketches out the stories from her mother’s recount of events and intertwines them with her own experience and interpretations. She says, “I begin every painting by sketching out memories. You have to let the outside world form your imagination,” “Mine is formed by everyday surroundings.”
Stansell reminds us that story telling as well as all types of art; have endless ideas from which interpretations can be constructed.
Hey, thanks for showcasing this artist! I really like her work!
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