Alyssa Monks: How loss helped one artist find beauty in imperfection
Alyssa Monks: Kusurların içindeki güzelliği bulan ressam
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.
about something personal
may be helpful to somebody.
yardım edebileceğini düşünüyorum.
Sekiz kardeşin en küçüğüyüm.
I grew up the youngest of eight.
gidebiliyorduk desem,
çeşit çeşit okul sonrası
from when I was eight to 16,
bütün sanat derslerine götürdü.
in New York City.
birkaç hayatta kalma becerisi edindim.
I learned a few survival skills.
see you do anything stupid.
and stay in line.
to be an artist.
istediğimden emindim.
garsonluk yapacaktım.
to support my painting.
and I got an MFA,
my brother asked me,
mean next to the paintings?"
kırmızı noktalar ne demek?"
that the paintings were sold
had four electrical outlets,
ve mikrodalgayla
and a toaster at the same time,
kullanamıyordum
from back around that time.
as realistic as possible.
isolated and in total control.
elimde olduğu tek yerdi.
of painting people in water.
suda çizme konusunda kariyer yaptım.
the perfect enclosed environment.
mükemmel kapalı ortamlardı.
that kept me busy for a decade.
beni 10 yıl kadar meşgul etti.
with the bathwater to make it cloudy
banyo suyunu karıştırdım ve
I couldn't wait to paint it.
kind of impulsive curiosity,
in my head and hair
with more than four outlets.
bir eve taşındım.
and inspiring each other.
ilham veriyorduk.
who made this painting
into adulthood, you're no longer a child,
yetişkinliğe adım attığın
by the responsibilities of life."
almadığın dönem." dedi.
and it was in her brain.
and I looked at her,
how to help her.
having him in charge,
büyük bir avantajdı
taking care of her.
everything I could to help,
I'm going to need you later."
ihtiyacım olacak." dedi.
and the internet didn't know:
istediğini biliyordu.
and whatever situation came up,
then now I was surrendering,
ama sonra teslim olmuştum.
the uncontrollable
into bed with her and sleep with her.
his car coming up the driveway.
for breakfast.
and bring their kids,
we could find to drink her coffee.
to help me with the showers.
after her diagnosis.
supportive and attentive way.
all together in this unknown,
of my time alone in a studio working,
for me to go back to my studio.
and I drove back to Brooklyn,
so that's what I did.
that was unraveling in me.
rendered safe place
I didn't want to paint anymore.
and I wasn't a landscape painter,
boyalarımı aldım,
much of any kind of painter at all,
It didn't matter. It didn't matter.
back to my studio,
that were fascinating me,
the paint like I used to.
and suggesting,
chaotic, turbulent surface
as I was when I was a student.
to put figures in these paintings, people,
insanları katmak istedim.
both people and this atmosphere.
what I've been working on.
and it's like a preview, I guess,
what matters most to me,
where there's no resisting or controlling.
edilmeyen alanda gerçekleşiyordu.
big losses in our lives,
are out of our control.
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