Vignette: Cori Hills

"I've chosen to use my (negative voice) as an artistic tool for healing and self-discovery.” - Cori Hills

"Never Let Go" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x2ft, 2014, $2500 (Prints unavailable)

Visual art in the 21st century is constantly merging, different trends and mediums of expression connecting or even sometimes colliding into one another. In the work of Cori Hills we see a print maker embracing the bold, graphics of graffiti art in hand-carved woodcuts that are then worked into with acrylic and spray paint.

“My work is a psychological exploration of traumatic events faced as a child,” explains Hills. “Through word and image, I personify the co-dependent relationship between my inner demons and inner child. Each plank of wood is a conquest, one of which I have complete control. We all have that negative voice inside us. I've chosen to use mine as an artistic tool for healing and self-discovery.”

The “demons” Hills makes reference to manifest themselves in the images we see here, a satyr-like species that crosses a tiger with a ram, the figures seem more maternal than carnal, trading the satyr’s sexual appetite for an unsettling combination of bestial nurturing and violation. The facial detail is unique, a saddened visage carrying religious symbols that is filled with portent and dread, if not actual evil.   

In 2017 "Don't Bite the Hand that Feeds You" was included in Image & Word: A Text-based Art Exhibition at Kaviar Forge and Gallery. The pieces "Never Let Go," and "Meat," are currently at the Tim Faulkner Gallery as a part of their winter show.

Hills, a Florida native, moved to Louisville in 2009. Cori graduated from the University of Louisville with a B.A. of Fine Arts in 2017. Her specialties include printmaking, painting and illustration.

Hometown: St. Augustine, Florida
Education: BA, Fine Arts, University of Louisville, 2017
Facebook: Original Artwork by Cori Hills

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"Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You" by Cori Hills, Print series of 10,  black ink on Asian paper, 4x3ft, 2017, $400

"Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x3ft, 2017, $3500 (Prints unavailable)

"Meat" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x3ft, 2015, $3000 (Prints unavailable)

"Natural Perversions" by Cori Hills, Print series of 10,  black ink on Asian paper, 4x2ft, 2017, $350

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved

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Vignette: Margaret Archambault

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“The power of what we see and how it alters our ability to find what we consider ‘happiness’ is something I find challenging and worth exploration.” – Margaret Archambault

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Archambault's studio

In her 6th solo exhibit, In Ten's; A Single Century to Live, which opens on October 6th at Tim Faulkner Gallery, Margaret Archambault examines perception and mortality: “In essence, we measure our lives in 10 decades of experience. Some of us don't reach that 10th decade, but we all see our ‘life-time’ as potentially 100 years. Our personal perspective evolves through these years and our expectations related to happiness and fulfillment either becomes satisfied or we are left perpetually wanting. It is my goal with this new series to demonstrate the fallacy of the world being sold to us and focus on the world we can create within ourselves.”

Illusion versus reality is a frequent theme in art, but does it challenge our sanity to question the perception of our own existence. Archambault posits the opposite, that we are already inured from reality by the insulating cocoon of mass media. Her busy, kinetic compositions emulate in analog fashion the unyielding assault of visual information that we weather on an almost constant basis in our daily lives.

"We Are What We Were" by Margaret Archambault, 60x84in, oil and spray paint on canvas (2017)

In “We Are What We Are,” Archambault breaks the pattern of dense collage slightly with the placement of one dominant figure, a 1920’s style woman representative of a pre-digital culture, but in a posture bent under the weight of 10 years of technological development.

“Regardless of our desires and often in direct defiance of our ‘plans’ the revolutions of time and the changes that come with it lead us to the revelations that alter our paths. My newest collection, the Silk Screen Series has a universal message about how our lives are affected by the world around us. More often than not, we make decisions based on what we think is expected of us, or what someone else wants us to do. These decisions often lead to destinations we never expected and only after we have arrived do we recognize the folly.”

Hometown: South Bend, Indiana
Education: BA, Interdisciplinary Humanities with Art Focus, Summa cum Laude, Spalding University, 2007
Gallery Representation: Tim Faulkner Gallery (Louisville)
Website: http://www.archambault-art.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/margaretarchambault

"A Book of Life" by Margaret Archambault, 60x84in, oil and spray paint on canvas (2017)

"It's What You See, Not What You're Shown" by Margaret Archambault, 32x23in, oil and spray paint on canvas (2016), $850 | BUY NOW

"Celebration" by Margaret Archambault, 60x84in, oil and spray paint on canvas (2017)

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.