Teresa Bernadette

Artist Statement

As a multidisciplinary fine, performing, and literary artist, I find myself exploring themes of shame, disgust, and grief--- the ways I am confronted by those emotions, and the bittersweet beauty I find underneath the conflict. Reflecting on my experiences with eating disorders, postpartum depression, isolation, and mourning, I uncover lovely, tender parts of myself, and the resilient bits that pull me through those struggles. My art practice becomes about capturing the ephemerality of those glimpses of grace.

Another motivation, for me, is curiosity. My practice includes material and modal experimentation, using traditional and non-traditional media as vehicles for telling stories in ways that create relatability and build empathy. My fascination with age, decay, and the passage of time appears in the cracks and textures of my paintings---in the evanescence of shifting light???in residue and scars. It invites compassion for our fragility, and celebration of our soft strength.

My medium is yes. I paint. I sculpt. I perform. I make films. I write poems and songs. Whatever I do, I seek to bring more mercy and wonderment into the world.