Amy Hanks Artist Statement

My work is a process of reckoning. I make spirit-filled collage, drawings and sculpture rooted in the ever changing interpretation of reality. What is real? I examine this process through blending media like watercolor, acrylic and even glitter with iconic characters. As I follow this process, imagery, sometimes precious, is reluctantly covered. At times I frantically try to dig back through paint to recover my original vision, but even if I’m successful the work always changes and evolves. And like the process of memory, that is the story, retouched, redefined and distorted. 

In my work iconic characters might develop multiple limbs to help them swim, fly, and run through unfamiliar landscapes before rooting into the earth. Worlds open under worlds in a kind of psychological cartography. Reality, memories and relationships become malleable. I’m not trying to be a surrealist, but rather I’m trying to describe and interpret the very real process of how we construct and reconstruct our perceptions and memories.

My imagery is drawn from my New Mexican roots, my childhood as a military brat, the urban life of Chicago, and art history. Right now, I am especially inspired by the work in the Cathedral of Toledo. There, ornate reliquaries contain precious and macabre bones, and the Virgin Mary watches sternly from above. I’m also inspired by the Reclining Woman of Henry Moore and his research into Chac-Mool, the slain warrior.  I'm inspired by Tarot, Hopi Kachinas, and Picasso’s Las Meninas series.  These and many other characters flow through my work in emotionally textured landscapes; an antischematic approach to a meditation on memory.

 Amy Hanks Biography 

Amy Hanks is a recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from the State of Illinois and is a Fulbright Fellowship Alumni studying in Uruguay. There, she researched educational models and project based learning throughout the country. She designed and project-led large scale, 250 foot murals in the Irving Park Community in Chicago. In those projects, she transformed huge highway underpass spaces as she collaborated with graffiti artists and community members to celebrate identity and place making.

In addition to her studio practice, she is currently a teaching artist at Mather High School in Chicago and has taught previously at the University of Michigan and Northeastern Illinois University. She holds a BFA from the University of Texas and an MFA from the University of Michigan as a Rackham Fellow.