Annie Decamp
My work focuses on the human story.
Since I was a child, I have been interested in themes of human migration, adaptation and cultural preservation. I earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley studying ancient history and art history, and continue to explore characters who bring an interesting back story, or use my imagination to bring their historical past to light.
My mixed media work begins with research into late 19th and mid-20th century black and white photographs. I typically paint from those photographs using charcoal, oil, and encaustic, or alter them digitally before painting onto them with the same materials. This results in a body of work that is intricate and highly layered due to the multitude of steps and mediums I use. This process and mixture of mediums speak to the complexity of human nature and ontology as well as the many layers of the human story. I use symbolism in my work to tell stories or illustrate how connected we are to the lives of others or to show how little we know about the truth of others, particularly in the digital age.
My deepest hope is that I take my work to a level that will reach viewers at their subliminal core, thereby bringing them into that innate place of understanding the whole of humanity possibly without knowing exactly why the work creates that experience for them.
