For Wintonbury: An Expansion of Narrative and Painting

In March 2017, I began planning the narratives of what would become my Thesis Exhibition. One year later marked my installation of the exhibit: For Wintonbury, located at the Fine Art Center Gallery at the University of Arkansas. A merging of the visual arts and literary fiction, For Wintonbury offers a more immersive experience in storytelling. The painted scenes, drawings, three-dimensional compositions, and short stories each serve their own purposes in presenting partial glimpses into the longer narratives of Wintonbury. Through multiple media and entry points, the viewer is given the choice in which sequence and manner to take in the stories. The drawings present ‘the making of.’ The paintings resemble pages in a book and are treated as collages of something remembered and pieced together. The three-dimensional compositions further engage the viewer in a physical and tactile way, the objects carrying with them their own histories. The book of short stories shares more details concerning the lives of the characters. Together these works form the little world of Wintonbury and reveal themes of love, loss, family, communication, and alienation. Here I will describe the story of Wintonbury; my role as author, maker, and collector; the four bodies of work; installation in the gallery; and the process of getting to this point in my studio practice and education at the University of Arkansas. I will conclude with a discussion of influences, artists, and my place in a contemporary context and field of work