Alyssa Monks: How loss helped one artist find beauty in imperfection
アリッサ・モンクス: 失うことで不完全さの中に美を見出した芸術家
Alyssa Monks transfers the intimacy and vulnerability of human experience onto a painted surface. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
描いています
about something personal
お話しするために来ました
may be helpful to somebody.
助けになればと思います
I grew up the youngest of eight.
私は8人きょうだいの末っ子でした
子どもたち皆を
連れて行ってくれました
from when I was eight to 16,
あらゆる美術教室に連れて行ったんです
それだけだったからです
in New York City.
授業を受けさえしました
I learned a few survival skills.
少々のサバイバル術を学びました
see you do anything stupid.
兄に見られてはならない
and stay in line.
まわりに合わせることを学びました
私がルールを作っていました
to be an artist.
心から芸術家を目指していました
to support my painting.
ウェイトレスになる計画を立てました
and I got an MFA,
MFA(芸術系の修士号)を取り
my brother asked me,
そこで兄が尋ねました
mean next to the paintings?"
that the paintings were sold
had four electrical outlets,
コンセントが4つで
and a toaster at the same time,
同時に使えませんでした
払うことができて
from back around that time.
as realistic as possible.
描く必要がありました
ならなかったのです
isolated and in total control.
全てを制御できる場でした
of painting people in water.
描いてきました
the perfect enclosed environment.
完全に閉ざされた環境です
that kept me busy for a decade.
込み入った難題でした
with the bathwater to make it cloudy
小麦粉を混ぜて濁らせました
I couldn't wait to paint it.
描くのを待ちきれませんでした
kind of impulsive curiosity,
突き動かされて
常に探していました
in my head and hair
自分の頭髪に塗って
認められつつあった私は
with more than four outlets.
アパートに引っ越しました
and inspiring each other.
互いに刺激しあいました
who made this painting
こんな絵を描きました
海辺で踊っているもので
呼びました
彼はこう言いました
into adulthood, you're no longer a child,
by the responsibilities of life."
背負っているわけでもないんだ」
and it was in her brain.
脳も侵していました
私は崩れ落ちて膝をつきました
and I looked at her,
母に目を向けたとき
自分のことじゃない
how to help her.
母を助ける方法を探すことだと
having him in charge,
大きな利点がありました
taking care of her.
everything I could to help,
何でもしてあげたかったので
鍼治療のことを調べました
I'm going to need you later."
と言うのです
知っていたのです
and the internet didn't know:
知っていました
and whatever situation came up,
そしてどんな状況になっても
then now I was surrendering,
今の私は 降参していました
the uncontrollable
制御するのをやめ
母とただ一緒に過ごしました
into bed with her and sleep with her.
母と一緒に眠ります
his car coming up the driveway.
とても嬉しくなります
母の両手をとって
持っていました
大好きで
for breakfast.
大好きでした
優しくしました
and bring their kids,
私たちは車いすを使うようになり
we could find to drink her coffee.
一番小さなティーカップを使いました
to help me with the showers.
手伝ってくれる人を雇いました
繰り返しました
苦しい経験で
求めていたものでもありました
「美しき酷さ」と呼びました
after her diagnosis.
supportive and attentive way.
結束しました
all together in this unknown,
ただ一緒にいるだけのようでした
of my time alone in a studio working,
一人で仕事をしているので
全くありませんでした
for me to go back to my studio.
戻らねばなりませんでした
and I drove back to Brooklyn,
ブルックリンに戻りました
so that's what I did.
そのときも 描きました
that was unraveling in me.
そこに放たれたかのようでした
rendered safe place
慎重に作られた安全な場を
作ってきたはずでしたが
I didn't want to paint anymore.
もう絵を描きたいと思えなかったからです
and I wasn't a landscape painter,
私は風景画は描かないけれど
much of any kind of painter at all,
期待もしていませんでした
自由の身になることができました
まだ乾かないまま
It didn't matter. It didn't matter.
そんなこと問題じゃない
back to my studio,
スタジオに持って戻り
彫りこんだり
線を描き足したりしました
表現しようとしたのではありません
that were fascinating me,
the paint like I used to.
思いどおりに描くことはできませんでした
and suggesting,
chaotic, turbulent surface
荒れ狂った表面が
as I was when I was a student.
好奇心をもつようになりました
to put figures in these paintings, people,
これらの絵に人物を入れることです
both people and this atmosphere.
両方を入れたかったのです
それは実にいい兆候でした
what I've been working on.
お見せしたいと思います
and it's like a preview, I guess,
今回がおそらく
what matters most to me,
自分にとって最も大事なものは何か
where there's no resisting or controlling.
抗いや制御のない場で起こるのです
big losses in our lives,
大きな喪失を体験します
are out of our control.
制御できません
感じられるのです
つながりましょう
to find something beautiful
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Alyssa Monks - PainterAlyssa Monks transfers the intimacy and vulnerability of human experience onto a painted surface.
Why you should listen
Alyssa Monks blurs the line between abstraction and realism through layering different spaces and moments in her paintings. Using semi-transparent filters of glass, vinyl, steam and water to flip background and foreground in her 10-year water series, she seduced the viewer into shallow spaces. Today, she is imposing a transparent landscape of infinite space over her emotionally evocative subjects.
The tension in her mostly large-scale paintings is sustained not only by the composition but also by the surface treatment itself. Each brushstroke is thickly applied oil paint, like a fossil recording every gesture and decision, expressing the energetic and empathic experience of the handmade object.
Monks's work is represented by Forum Gallery in New York City. She lives and paints in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her latest solo exhibition "Resolution" took place March and April of 2016 at Forum Gallery. Monks's paintings have been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions including "Intimacy" at the Kunst Museum in Ahlen, Germany and "Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820–2009" at the National Academy Museum of Fine Arts, New York. Her work is represented in public and private collections, including the Savannah College of Arts, the Somerset Art Association, Fullerton College, the Seavest Collection and the collections of Eric Fischl, Howard Tullman, Gerrity Lansing, Danielle Steele, Alec Baldwin and Luciano Benetton.
Born 1977 in New Jersey, Monks began oil painting as a child. She studied at The New School in New York and Montclair State University and earned her B.A. from Boston College in 1999. During this time she studied painting at Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence. She went on to earn her M.F.A from the New York Academy of Art, Graduate School of Figurative Art in 2001. She completed an artist in residency at Fullerton College in 2006 and has lectured and taught at universities and institutions nationwide. She continues to offer workshops and lectures regularly.
Monks has been awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant for Painting three times and serves as a member of the New York Academy of Art's Board of Trustees.
Alyssa Monks | Speaker | TED.com