Statement
In my work, I explore relationships of care and interdependence in which the boundaries between myself and those who depend upon me — or who I depend upon—are sometimes blurred, and sometimes placed into moments of tension, even crisis. My early work explored the shifting dynamics of care with my mother, as she succumbed to a neurological disease. Over the years, and as I became a mother myself, my work grew more allegorical, and expanded to accommodate new dynamics of care, dependence, and co-dependence. All these narratives find vibrance, humor, pathos through my irreverent style, which evokes childlike mark-making, playful colors, and all the malleable gravity of fantasy and myth. For my current series, the protagonist finds herself dangling and precarious, in many distinct scenes that feel drawn from the same adventure story. As she navigates the wilderness, one gets the sense that the heroine is just looking for some safety, for a place to rest, but the journey to that place is filled with difficult negotiations.
Bio
Tori Tinsley (b.1980) earned a BFA from The University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design, an MAAT from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from the Georgia State University Welch School of Art & Design. Tinsley’s work has been featured in Art Papers, Oxford American,and New American Paintings, among others. She is a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, a City of Atlanta Emerging Artist Award, and an Idea Capital Grant. Currently, she is a member of the Atlanta Contemporary Studio Artist program and is represented by Laney Contemporary and Co-op Art Atlanta.