Trophy Shots: Pencil & Pastel Drawings
Artist Statement
Recently I have been making a series of drawings based on trophy shots of hunters and their prey, photographs that depict the killing of animals by the people who participated in the act. When posing, hunters will highlight the most impressive physical feature of the animal, such as its size, tusks, or claws. The trophy shot, often taken in the field by participants in the hunt, serves as a document of the hunter’s success. In the images reinterpreted here, I draw the animal’s gesture and form in full value and just hint at the hunter’s presence. I want the death of the animal, however it may be justified, to get as much attention as the hunter’s prowess. I am interested in how the images’ meanings change, sometimes radically, based on assumptions viewers make about what they see.
Jackie Skrzynski (skrin-ski) grew up one of eight children in a family that transplanted from western New York to North Carolina. She earned her undergraduate degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and her MA and MFA from the University at Albany, NY. She exhibits extensively, mostly recently in Beacon, NY, San Francisco, CA, and Morehead, KY. Skrzynski is the founder of PUG Projects, which creates temporary art exhibits in transitional, economically diverse spaces. She is an assistant professor of Painting and Drawing at Ramapo College of New Jersey, a liberal arts college at the edge of the Ramapo Mountains.
