ARTIST STATEMENT
Camryn Gulledge is currently an MFA Candidate at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri. She received her MFA from Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Arkansas. Camryn’s current body of work is mixed media sculpture using found objects and 2-dimensional rendering to explore her experience of feeling “other” in her environment as a queer and neurodivergent woman. Having grown up in Arkansas in an area considered part of the deep south, Camryn explores the ambient desolation of human impact within nature, the sense of isolation that is pervasive in capitalist America, her place in her culture and in nature, and the contradictory emotions she has for the environment that formed her identity. As a kid, most of her time was spent engaging with nature, specifically with small creatures like reptiles, amphibians, and fish. This fixation developed into a form of escapism in which the outdoors and the animals themselves became a safe place for the mind and body to go. Much of Camryn’s current practice is based in field research and collection. During excursions to lakes, creeks, and areas of forest, she collects trash and documents the wildlife she finds. In these brief interactions with these animals and objects, she considers her relationship with the ecosystem and the processes of catharsis and care.