Artist: Sienna Browne
Exhibition: Product of the Palette
Media: Painting
Gallery: Black Umbrella and Tattoo Art Gallery
Website: http://www.siennabrowneart.com
Instagram: @siennabrowneart
Sienna Browne is a fourth year student in the School of Art’s Drawing and Painting. She wishes to use her degree in arts to be an art teacher. Sienna is also a beach lifeguard, middle school youth leader for her church, and a student assistant at Long Beach State. She started her art in her early years while she was home-schooled, which sheltered her from societal influences until she went to middle school and high school. When growing up, she developed a eating disorder which affected her paintings subconsciously. Most of her paintings are works that reflect how she feels and other outside influences that affect her life.
Sienna has many different stages of her artwork, ranging from painting to sculpting, and her ideas are completely separate. She talked about her first series being the paintings with food on top of people’s heads. This was a more realistic approach. However, to compare, the series of “Nuudles” is completely abstract and references to the idea of self love to one’s body. She uses very bright and outstanding colors that first peak the interest of the viewer and then continues to draws them in. In her ocean series, a lot of smaller and more refined details are put into the sea animals to convey the complex nature of the connection between her and the ocean. This goes to show the effects of being a life guard and it is conveyed through her painting.
One of the more notable works of art that attracted my attention was the “people balancing food on their head” series because of the way she spoke about the subconscious influences while she was painting. During this time, she suffered from major eating disorders and poor body image, which was reflected in her work. I think having people balancing foods on their heads was something fun at first, but it goes deeper into showing how food and its influence on her was always on her mind. This, in turn, was therapeutic for her. Another artwork series in response to her eating disorders was the “Nuudles” series which embraces self love and welcomes all body types.
This exhibition stood out to me because I actually really relate to her stories about having poor body image and eating disorders. I’m glad that she found an outlet through art, and it inspires me to try it out. Her ideas are very personal, which makes her art even more personal. I haven’t experienced an artist that puts their own personal experiences into their artwork during my artist conversations, so this was a good change of pace. I look forward to seeing her exhibition.
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