Lacey Bryant

Theatrically posed and surrounded by lush, illusory environments, the subjects of Lacey's works are like illustrations in a picture book written in an unknown language.  The images are somewhat familiar but certain elements remains foreign.  Like a hazy dream of an imagined childhood long forgotten, the images strive to make you feel as if you just might have been there once, maybe.  The stage is set in an imagined world of natural beauty beneath ominously stormy skies.  It is a world poised between now and once upon a time. 

The use of symbolism gives the work a universal language although many of the symbols can be interpreted in several different ways.  Certain motifs are repeated throughout the works such as birds and insects, roots, branches or veins, string, theatre curtains and abandoned objects.  Often emitting from the haunting subjects of her work, these symbols represent desires, feelings and afflictions.  Lacey’s subjects are often blind to their own dilemmas or at least are unaware of how to change their circumstances.  Curtains remind us that we are peering in on a world as artificial as our own.  These images are invented to confront issues such as connection, longing, frailty, time and our own mortality.   

            As is common in Lacey's work, there is a subtle tension between beautiful and unsettling elements.  Though the settings are usually very light and airy there is a certain heaviness in the atmosphere and a distinct melancholy about the girls with wild hair and confrontational stares.  We are presented with things we are uncomfortable with-spiders, holes, cracks and decay.  This contrast is constructed to create a sense of mystery and mood, enticing the viewer to linger and embrace their own hidden dark sides or even to find the beauty in something that scares us.           

About the Artist

Lacey lives in San Jose where she paints almost every day.  When she isn’t painting, she likes to go hiking, knit, play with her cat, Hecubus and eat cupcakes.  She also paints scenery for theatre and haunted houses.