Ansley Gwin

Vancouver, Washington

I capture shadows, movements, and secrets I find. The actions I take in uncovering these small secret moments within the natural-like world lead me to ponder feelings about the murkiness of grief for friend and family-kind, and for ecological-kind, together intertwined. From this act can come joy for the beauty of dark decay’s contrast against light’s reflections on water's surface. Using my art practice as a personal survival tactic to navigate things one cannot understand, my many processes become a spark that initiates the flame to create. This fire begins to engulf every step of making and transforming an experience into an object.

I am awakened by the drive to explore the small mysteries of being with the natural-like world and bury my mind in the depths of its varied textures, subtle movements, surprising sounds, and unexplainable vastness. My process starts here, with the experience of an interaction with organic matter, natural beings, vast bodies of water, a crevice carved by spring, a red fox sighted on a beach.