ArtScuttlebutt.com member Amy Guidry (www.amyguidry.com) loves investigating the hidden aspects of human nature in her art.
“In general, I focus on people and the psychology behind people — not just our interactions with one another, but also with the natural world and the animal kingdom,” she explains.
Naturally, Guidry’s fascination with psychology fueled her attraction to surrealism as a subject: “Surrealism was the marriage of my two loves: psychology and art. It was just a natural progression for me to find that subject so interesting and to incorporate it into my work.”
The 33-year-old painter from Lafayette, Louisiana, mines her own psyche regularly as part of her artistic process. “Much of the images in my work have come from dreams and from free association exercises where I let my mind wander,” she says.
Guidry then collects the sketchbooks and reworks concepts to form a cohesive body of work. In her most recent series, New Realm, Guidry looked to the fantasy world of traditional fairytales for inspiration. While the setting suited her creative sensibility, she found herself disturbed by the depiction of women in the stories and decided to use her paintings to challenge popular views about women. Instead of someone who is out of her element — scared, ready to run away or look for help — Guidry created a heroine who is calm, collected and in control of the situation.
“The whole concept of women being victims needing to be saved or waiting for Mr. Right bothers me,” she states. “I like to consider myself an independent, strong person, and I hope that comes across. I don’t like for women to be seen in art as simply the muse to someone else.”
Unsurprisingly, the artist used herself as a model. And although Guidry doesn’t consider the choice to be personal, and feels the narrative is universal to women in general, Guidry’s take-charge attitude fits her character’s persona. “In a way you could say it is about me in that I am a woman and I have had my own trials and tribulations associated with that. I can certainly relate to the series,” she admits.
After graduation from Loyola University with a B.A. in visual arts, Guidry worked for a decade as an in-house jewelry designer for Struller, Inc.
