Vanessa VanAlstyne
Vanessa VanAlstyne
Vanessa VanAlstyne is an artist living in Las Vegas, NV, but was born in West Texas. Zeir current work examines biology, psychedelic art, biomorphic surrealism, death, and medical history. Zey have a BA from the University of Texas at Dallas (2007) and an MFA from the University of Houston (2010). Zeir current body of work has been influenced by her ownership of Las Vegas Oddities, a store focusing on the unusual, rare, and macabre (2017-2020.) Zey lives with zeir husband and various pets in the Louisville, KY, area.
If art is a reflection, to me, it reflects the time and
history spinning around it. We are all the children of history, so our
birthed art babies spring up and scream into our current rendition of the void.
I exist in a world between worlds, and in my shadow, I draw together the
landscapes, places, biological organisms, and strange mysticisms that make my
life grotesquely beautiful.
I owned an oddities store in Las Vegas. After
it fell apart, I found myself looking down the loaded end of a world so visceral
and full of viscera that I wanted to glimpse the worlds beyond us; however alien and
inhuman they may be. Now middle-aged, I want to be alien and inhuman, so I paint and draw
these meat babies and broken things. I worship at the altar of the medical
illustration, Frances Bacon, and new crone reality. When I am done, I hope to transcend this
space and become the great and horrible thing I have spent my life learning to
become. This work will be the key to where I am going.
Vanessa can be reached on Instagram @VanVanAlstyne