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Artist: Maria OgedengbeShe/Her/Hers

Artistic Discipline: Visual
Location: Spokane, WA

Artist Statement – 2022 Faculty Biennial, Oliver Gallery, Whitworth University

Through my studio, I work across a variety of disciplines. I earned my MFA at Yale in Painting & Printmaking and later spent three summers at the School of Visual Arts, NYC, working in digital art and photo-based printmaking.

Threads that run through different bodies of my work reveal fascinations with textiles and African arts and culture. These concerns merged in three artist residencies in Lagos, Oshogbo, and Abeokuta, Nigeria where I studied textile arts through working alongside production dyers. This experience has impacted my practice with the blurring of lines between realms of Textile Arts and Painting & Printmaking. Hand dyeing is color on cloth, painting is color on canvas. The imprint used in hand-patterned textiles parallels fine art printmaking.

And we call photos prints, too. 

naranja canela is from a body of my work called photo friezes. These are wide panorama-like bands of photo imagery picturing an assembled prop I wrought from fabrics. After collecting textiles for the project I prepare them, for instance through hand sewing or using a sewing machine with ruffler attachment… and then arrange the assemblage by tacking it together. For highest resolution, a series of vertical shots are taken using a shift lens and camera track. Then I join the images in Photoshop and manipulate the composite so it tiles seamlessly every few feet. I print the archival inkjet photos in my studio. For naranja canela, the prints were mounted, trimmed, and set in frames.

I like high color and the dazzling sort of color available in textiles – and textiles may carry cultural meaning or tell a story. The searing orange in this piece shows cloth intended for hunter’s garb; the African wax print ruffle at top and bottom looks spicy. naranja canela’s title recalls a recipe for cinnamon-orange spiced chicken that my mom used to prepare and the Spanish name, Canela.
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Hello, all !
I’m new in Spokane > seeking to be of help, looking for opportunity !

Whitworth 2022 Faculty Biennial