Willow Wells - Inward Consumption
Willow Wells represents the human body and nature, with the objective of in-tangling them into a symbiotic form. She Uses traditional fine-art techniques and takes visual and conceptual inspiration from the genre body horror and its use of the metamorphosis narrative. Wells is particularly captivated by the feminine representation of the grotesque, a theme that pervades her artistic exploration. Wells uses intricacy to create artworks that present themselves as beautiful in order to entice viewers to look closer at the inherent grotesque subjects of her work.
Through painting, drawing, and printmaking Wells renders figures and plants into cohesive forms, meant to give the work a sense of “In-between” male and female, and plant and human. Wells addresses the act of metamorphosis as a tool to express things beyond verbal explanation. The body itself tells the story exposing exterior and interior conflicts. Taking this narrative format and implementing it into other elements of visual culture as well as art history, she hopes to further the conversation around the fluidity of gender, sex, and the constriction of binaries.
Willow Wells was born in 1996 in Middletown CT. As a New Englander she draws inspiration from the haunting beauty of old cemeteries and folklore. These influences have shaped her into an artist who delves into the realm of symbolism.
She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts where she studied the figure as well as traditional techniques. She then received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of South Florida where she began employing the concepts within the genre of body horror to unravel the narrative of metamorphosis, resulting in figures seamlessly merging with botanical elements. While at USF she was able to work with Graphicstudios to learn the process of reduction printmaking bringing fresh color into her work.
Wells uses painting, drawing, printmaking, and animation to communicate ideas that transcend verbal expression. In Willow Wells' creations, the metamorphic journey becomes a visual language, inviting viewers to engage with and reflect upon the nuanced complexities of the human experience.