Summer Voelker
Los Angeles, CA
Summer Voelker in her studio. Photo by @moonrabbitphotography
Message
Summer Voelker is a figurative artist living and working in Los Angeles, California. Voelker grew up in NW Arkansas, then received her BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in LA. She has spent the last 20 years in Los Angeles as a textile designer and fine artist. These two focuses inform each other beautifully, with her textile design career being commercially successful, and her feminine watercolors and pastels having found a solid following on Twitch and Instagram.
Voelker's most current series is "Owning the Means of (Re)Production." This is a self-portrait series created in oil on canvas with copper foil details that focuses on feminism, reproductive rights, and workers rights.
Statement
I've created for so long, it was shocking to realize I had something so intense to say. I had to create it - I couldn't let the idea rest. That's how my current series began.
My self-portrait series, "Owning the Means of (Re)Production," works through the ideas of the artist as her own model and the woman as owner of her body. It encourages discussions of sex and sensuality, asking where the line is between selling oneself and selling an idea - and why those have different connotations when applied to men and women. Besides themes of feminism and reproductive rights, the series hints at workers rights and their relation to sex work as well. These layered ideas and meanings are reflected in the rich, bold feel of the work. Pattern, texture, and color combine to create full illustrations of the artist/model looking both thoughtful and confrontational to the viewer. She is demanding, inviting, and ultimately questioning the intent of both herself and her audience.
I didn't want this series to be so serious as to be unpalatable. Although there is an intensity to the work, there's also a sensuality. The body is meant to be beautiful, seen as attractive, and beguile while making you think about the heavier subjects at hand.
The creation of these pieces begins with a base of saturated color to depict dramatic lighting and beautiful form. The body is the most highly rendered, to show the importance thereof. Copper foil is then applied over the top and winds through each piece providing more depth and visual interest as well as texture and shine. The viewer may also notice - my textile design background has been intertwined in the work, with wallpaper, curtains, and floors alternately receiving attention.
This series is the start of many I will be painting as I reflect on myself and the interactions I have with the world around me. As the world changes, so do I - through age, experience, and skill. I'm speaking to the world with these paintings, and I'm so excited to hear what the world sees and says back.