Amanda Porter

Artist Statement

I am a contemporary, conceptual artist. My art is in a variety of mediums as I use whatever materials and processes best connect to the concept I am exploring. I often deal with concepts of time, loss, emotion and place. For me art is communication and expression. Common tools I use in my work are color, words and abstraction. My art practice is called Unaccustomed Beauty Contemporary Art because I believe it is important to seek out beauty and that it often exists in unaccustomed places. We can get so used to seeing the world one way, defining beauty one way, marking time one way and my art hopes to challenge that by bringing a new perspective on familiar concepts.

My artwork can be stand alone pieces but often I create series or wall installations where multiple paintings or photographs create a larger artwork. Many concepts need multiple parts to incorporate the passage of time or layers of a concept. The process is equally important to the outcome in many of my works. How it was created contributes to the meaning and expression of the piece. Sometimes where it was created and the specific materials used also speak deeply into the work.

Most of the time I work out of my home studio in West Haven, Utah. When paint is my medium I use acrylics on canvas sometimes with the addition of paint markers. Photography is a medium I often work in as well. I use digital cameras to create photos and work with polaroid transfers and cyanotype photography as well. Cyanotype is an exposure and development process that uses sunlight to create a blue image. When I work in cyanotype I often work camera-less and make photograms from objects and their shadows. Sometimes I work in sculpture which usually consists of mixed media work.