Sydney Flatt
2020, Oil on canvas
2020, Oil on canvas
2020, Oil on canvas
2020, Oil on canvas
About the Artist
Sydney Flatt was born in Mississippi in the September of ‘96. She spent most of her childhood in two places: Starkville, Mississippi and Griffin, Georgia. Starkville is home to Mississippi State University, a place where she has be exposed to immense creativity through various different art styles. In Mississippi, public schools had special art and theatre classes in which students were prompted to apply for participation. Later on, She graduated from Spalding High School in 2015, where she received college credit for introductory art courses. Having established her passion for art, she participated in the SCAD sidewalk chalk festival and won a graduate award for her art. She attended the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford, her first year and half of college. This is where she would be first introduced to the art of oil painting, an art form which has influenced her current style. The later portion of her degree would be completed at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. This is where she will graduate with the class of 2020 with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts and a focus in Painting.
Artist Statement
Sydney Flatt’s work features abstract portraits. The colors are pulled from natural earth tones with a heavy use of white and black. Each of the four paintings represents different perspectives of how we view our own mental health. The words layered under the oil paint illustrate the different inner monologues.
In the first painting of the series, Masking, the figure is painted facing the viewer. The concept being that the figure is taking life head-on and is covering up their inner struggles by facing things directly as to almost forget and blockout the fear of future and present. The idea being as long as they know who they are they can keep going. In The Opening of My Box a journey towards self-realization and reflection is referenced with the writing being very clearly depicted but at the same time unreadable. The writing poses as a representation of how understanding yourself should be easier yet at the same time impossible.
The Barrier of Anatomy is about how not only mentally do each of us face different challenges but how our physical body and life experiences change how we can process the world around us. While sex and gender are seen often as ridged-barrier they are often more fluid and influential. They also mislead others and hinders their way of understanding someone's true self. The fourth painting Meditative Health the idea of healing and understanding through meditation and self-reflection. This was inspired by a friend that she have seen help many people around them while also struggling. The four works completed comes from her series “Colors of the Mind”.