Myth: Mixed Media
Artist Statement
Every day I am confronted by contrasts between my expectations and my experiences as an expatriate living in the United States of America. When I examine my own attitude towards my milieu, which has been simultaneously vilified and glorified by outsiders like myself, I am obliged to recognize that preconceived notions and biases corrupt my perception. This interpretive distortion, both of current events and histories, segregates me in a way that is painful in its isolation, but also empowering in its protection. I am untouched or deeply embedded as I allow myself to be. With this series I investigate my relationship with current and past issues, attitudes, and social identities. In particular, I connect with the concept of the Myth; a lasting narrative that is fantasy-based as well as a tool for learning. I layer, cushion, and obscure figures and still life motifs so that they become concurrently part of the foreground and the background, displacing figure/ground relationships. I weave text into my pieces amongst modern design motifs appropriated from fabric and textile patterns from a time known for its stagnant gender and family roles.
Nicole Foran is a Canadian transplant that has been living and working in the United States for the past nine years. She earned her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Cincinnati in 2008 and since then has been employed in Texas. She is currently an Associate Professor at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. Her experience of living on the border and raising her son has inspired many pieces in her recent body of work.
