About Helen & About Pearl
Artist Statement
As a women, science has validated my experience of existence. It has rooted me in our shared human history and buoyed my hope by illuminating the literal biological process of learning. It is through science, that the ancient once forgotten roots of human evolution were unearthed, and it is through science that we humans are now uncovering the truth about how individuals become who they are. Understanding human development, should lend us all the patience to see real progress actualized, on both individual and societal levels.
Through my art I aim to depict, protect and share what I have learned about being a human growing up in the 20th century. Through the eyes of a darwinian feminist, who finds comfort in the nature of our world and does not fear it, it is also important to me, to deliver these lessons with love and in a manner that inspires my viewers. These lessons will range from the more personal level of my lived experience, to the less personal observed lessons in cognitive and behavioral sciences with a focus on how people develop and how they can enact change through learning. The greatest gift humans have been given is that of adaptability, and overall my message is a positive one. let us together face the truth of our bodies and history so that we may have the best chance of changing and modeling our future.
Bio
Cristina David (she/hers) has been oil painting since the age of twelve, and has always had an interest in psychology and earth’s many species. A born naturalist Cristina used to collect bugs, and during her middle school recess’s would opt to spend hours drawing animals, page by page from the library’s animal encyclopedia. Her love of art would continue through-out college where she graduated Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA in Fine Art, and throughout the years she spent as a disaster relief worker for All Hands Volunteers, (now all hands and hearts) both in the states and abroad, leading her to art therapy. Psychology and art merge together in Cristina's creative process, yeilding work that both explores her values and records them. Her current body of work is what she is referring to as the start of her oeuvre and it is titled, Origin.
Artist Statement and Bio
Annie (Lattimore) Clemmons (she/they)
Annie Clemmons graduated from Guilford College with a Visual Arts degree in 2020. During their college career she participated and helped curate art shows and events every semester. This led her to finish her college career as an Art Thesis Student. Their art thesis explored anxieties about disease, illness, and contamination. Challenging herself to confront her fears were and still is a part of her creative process. Inspired by the microbiology found looking through microscopes, Annie occasionally highlights a cell or protein that sources invisible illness and disease. Having one themself and knowing others who do, watching them push through each day, inspires her to learn and create their version of invisible disease. Annie associates their use of color and texture with the importance of those invisible hardships not going unnoticed. Annie hopes that visualizing the internal working of self will help viewers understand their own complexities. The self changes constantly, the cells in our bodies die and recycle every second. We are not one thing. We are many things all at one time. Some of us are struggling, surviving, thriving, living everyday invisible to those around us. At our core, we are all a collection of microbes. Annie herself creates art to demand to be seen. Annie Clemmons is one half of Helen and Pearl, A joint art shop selling original works, collaborative pieces, prints, stickers, and more.
