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Artist Profile: Alicia Firstbrook-Stott

Alicia Firstbrook-Stott

11011 Lakeside Drive
Manhattan, KS 66503

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Bio:

I have been teaching art for almost two decades, including the likes of Kindergarten through 12th grade and even at the college level. My students can attest that I do not let them waste anything. I am constantly spraying down paint with water to keep it usable, picking objects off the floor and keeping articles that others might find useless. It is also common to see me digging in the trash because “I...can use this for something.” Through this, I have been collecting discarded materials that I feel could be used within my art. My artwork is built one layer at a time. Although my theme is aimed at portraying the various emotions the heart can experience; when I begin a piece, I do not have an image of what the end result might be. I incorporate what I am feeling into the materials I have found on my scavenger encounters. I had always despised the symbol of the heart. To me, it represented something that everyone knows how to draw, and a sappy feeling of love…uggghhhh!!! I thought, “Real artists don’t use hearts, or any symbols for that matter.” The year 2007, I went through an incredibly tumultuous time in my life. The result, I literally “felt” the spectrum of emotions my heart endured. This phenomenon led me to redefine what I thought the “heart” represented. My series “Junk of the Heart” represents all the junk, or emotions, that can be endured and what we choose “do” with them. The product is a metaphor for how the "junk" of our hearts can be transformed and reinvented into art.