Date: Sunday, October 20
Address: Intersect Arts Center, 3636 Texas Ave, St. Louis, MO 63118
Media: Drawing, Mixed Media, Painting
Studio Features: ADA Accessible, Child-Friendly, Restroom, Refreshments, Work For Sale
Amy Reidel, Monster Love, 2019. Mixed media on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. 
Amy Reidel, Jammy Nightmare, 2019. Mixed media on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. 
Amy Reidel, Untitled, 2019. Mixed media on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. 
Amy Reidel, Holy Trinity/Grandma's Scarves, 2019. Mixed media on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. 
Amy Reidel, Untitled, 2019. Mixed media on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. My work abstractly illuminates what many women and caregivers experience but are not encouraged to discuss. I combine the bittersweet emotions between babies and mothers, the gore of violation, tumors and other health conditions, along with the innocuous patterns of Grandma’s scarves and decorative rugs. My paintings, drawings and sculptures are the result of much material heavy-handedness, layering and erasure, which has become my primary language as a progressive and first-time mother in the conservative Heartland.
Personal and political issues conflate within my work and result in aggressive but candy-colored marks, and darling baby figures dwelling in bleeding domestic settings and scarred mommies. The dazzling glitter and saturated spectrums found in my work are used as defense mechanisms and filters to withstand the crushing devastation of being alive and loving in a time of family separations at the border and a misogynistic and racist socio-political landscape.
