Britta Urness

The week after my childhood dog died, I was sent a photo. It was of my mom standing beside a sign. The shadow she cast on the sign was the dog’s silhouette.

This example of the power of pictures continually drives me to re-contextualize the known and unknown. I don’t focus on the supernatural, but the hope is always that some haunting “otherness” will emerge from my work that is carried by figures, spaces and abstractions.

My current work begins with interest in abstracted figures, hair and hands as a foundation for portraits. I flesh out these symbols of self-image, persona, glamour and visual culture by supporting them within a context which hopes to reflect the headspace of the created character or situation.

When drawing, this is a slower, more exacting process which provides a different tempo at which to manipulate the same kind of subject matter as opposed to painting. The drawings are more patient and rendered and tend to become softer, more surrealist amalgamations of bodies, gestures and objects.

I find the act of drawing and painting to be a guilty pleasure. The result of making my work has led me to understand new things about fears, memory, storytelling and the self. With my work I want to bring forth the visual and cultural ephemera we subconsciously collect, then retranslate it into a new visual experience via portraiture mixed with abstraction.