Nina Craig
Houston, TX
Artist's Statement:
I have always been fascinated with fashion and the female figure. As a young girl I would draw page after page of women wearing fancy ball gowns, mini skirts and stiletto heels. As I grew older fashion magazines became one of my passions. The striking color and sensual photographs appealed to my artistic sensibilities. In college I created rugged steel sculptures in the shape of delicate lingerie and dresses. Eventually, the ideas in the larger pieces became condensed into small oil and mixed media paintings.
Each painting consists of a figurative element in an abstracted environment that either resembles an intricate pattern or an implied natural texture, such as grass or tree bark. The paintings do not depict the entire woman, only a part of the body such as the legs, or maybe just a scrap of clothing. Each painting is meant to capture a moment, or a fantasy. In these images I?m trying to illustrate my expectations, desires, and disappointments. Since reality is often mundane I try to take the fleeting moments where excitement or anticipation begins to bubble and save it in a painting. Initially the paintings would often represent friends and family. I would try to paint their personality and somehow describe my feelings about them using a partial figure, color and line. Then the paintings evolved into more personal collection of ideas and experiences. At times the environment is meant to comfortably envelop the figure in the painting, while others awkwardly exist around it.
The glamorized shape of the women?s bodies and the small scale of the work make the images more personal and intimate. Each painting becomes a cross between a personal narrative and a fantasy all having to do with the search for confidence and a woman?s struggle to be comfortable in her own skin.
Born in Gadsden, AL 1978, Currently lives and works in Houston, TX.
