T. Owens Union
About Me
My Art
My art is an exploration of African American cultural identity and experience. I also consider how beauty is defined in society. I create digital collage portraits and composites, often with antique dolls and African sculptures as the foundation. I use old dolls because like history they are bruised and imperfect but can be remolded to represent a different perspective. Vintage documents and images, and found objects and textures discovered on our rural property serve as inspiration and are collected and scanned or photographed to be incorporated into the pieces.
The process is driven by the materials at hand with many substitutions and modifications along the way, with the finished pieces sometimes barely resembling the original concept.
Image: Portraits with the original dolls
Biography
I am a career scientist in a visually oriented discipline (pathology). I also attended The New School (Parsons) and was primarily drawn to courses such as computer assisted design (CAD), graphic design, drawing, and digital layout which inspired me to experiment in creating visual art. Through art I explore concepts of physical, cultural, and spiritual identity as reflected through history, particularly of the African American community. Sometimes though it is fun to just photograph old stuff and make interesting digital compositions.
Image: From an old found rag rug found in the chicken shed, deconstructed and showing the fabric remnants.
