Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Stewart.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am an interdisciplinary artist working within 2D and 3D pieces consisting of paper, fibers, painting, and various mixed media pieces. I recently took up welding as well too. Lots of my concepts revolve around themes of mental health, more specifically, themes of anxiety and my own experience within it. I use participatory art practices to spark dialogue around topics of mental health experiences to do my part to normalize the conversation around these themes. I completed my BFA in Studio Art during the start of the pandemic, and throughout the next three years, I built up my art practice and began working around the themes I study now. The passing of my grandmother made me realize the importance of sharing my own experience with mental health, and I haven’t looked back since. I began working within homemade paper, using torn-up self-help books as a medium since they weren’t doing any good for me sitting on my bookshelf. The repetitive practice of making paper and knitting now makes up the work I create today as I work on my master’s.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, it never is. I still have lots to learn and grow my art to have it be the best it can be. Working through anxiety and pushing myself out of my comfort zone is never fun in the moment, but it helps me grow as a person and as an artist. The constant feeling of imposter syndrome is also a thing.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I currently make interdisciplinary pieces using multiple different mediums of homemade paper, yarn fibers and as mentioned earlier, I also have started learning welding and I am teaching myself how to loom on a loom I recently inherited. I like the idea of using meditative and repetitive art techniques in my studio work and the relationship it has with mental health. I think it has something to do with being a swimmer and doing repetitive laps at a young age. I have recently been exhibited in a three-person group exhibition, “(Un)Familiar” at NUMU Los Gatos; I completed 19 pieces and an installation piece for the exhibition, which I am all quite proud of. All of the pieces revolve around my experience of anxiety, as well as sharing with others and using participatory art for people to share their own experiences of mental health in a visual way to normalize conversations around topics of mental health, especially for those where talking about mental health can be a taboo topic.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Seeing the art world continue to open up the community to more artists of different backgrounds, cultures, practices and cultivate more conversations around difficult topics is something I continue to hope for. I think we will see a shift of art in new mediums, some we may have already known but being used in completely different avenues, and seeing a shift of how art and technology cohabitate.
Contact Info:
- Website: chelseaannestewart.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/chelsea_anne_stewart
Image Credits
Headshot image: Bryn Power Photography
