Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Hunter Stone's Artist Statement

My creative inspiration is a result of my contemplation of human psychology and a desire to fight for social justice.

The fact that the human condition involves such great depths of sadness and enormous heights of happiness is fascinating to me; although most of our lives are often spent somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, my art is often a direct response to one of these two sides of the emotional spectrum. On one hand, I am inspired by the beauty of both human nature, our capacity for love, sympathy, and kindness, as well as “mother nature”--the incredible aesthetic that is the physical world we live in. But on the other hand, I can’t help but struggle with understanding how such ugliness (as is seen everyday in the news) can coexist with such beauty. My art often acts as therapy for me--a way for me to create order out of the chaos both without and within my mind.

I’m inspired by political artists who use art in order to raise awareness about societal issues, inspire activism, and, hopefully, bring about meaningful change in their society. Personally, I’m particularly interested in art that raises questions about human rights issues, such as the wage gender gap, body policing, sexual harassment/assault, racial stereotyping/discrimination, the prison industrial complex, and war. For specifics, see Tatyana Fazlalizadeh’s “Stop Telling Women to Smile” project, Eugene Jarecki’s film “The House I Live In”, and Jessica Valenti’s book The Purity Myth.

I use lots of different media--ink drawing, painting, embroidery, photography, video, and creative writing. Moving forward, I will be moving my art out of the small sphere of my immediate friends and family and into the larger space of the public. While the internet is efficient at this, I would also like to focus on print publications and street art, which can directly interact with the people of NYC.

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