Artwork of Alese
Hello! I am Alese. Nice to meet you!
Alese,(Madeline Neuls), is a mix media flatwork artist born and based in Houston, Tx. She has been creating art since before the age of two years old and has used art as means for expressing her deepest thoughts, feelings, and desires. She was mainly self-taught before starting her academic career at Sam Houston State University. She will be awarded her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Animation in December of 2024. She plans to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Practices, and wants to show her work in galleries as well as making 2D and 3D animated shorts for her characters and stories.
Artist Statement
I started making art before I was able to communicate with others through means of talking, reading, or writing. My father once said that art was my therapist a couple of years ago. At first, it seemed like a cute thing for a dad to say about his daughter, that is until it was proven right repeatedly. I have had issues communicating thoughts and feelings, so making art helped me convey those thoughts and emotions. Once finished, then it’s easier to talk about those difficult things.
With my practice, I make drawings, paintings and occasionally linocut prints. My work conveys my experience, both small passing thoughts and deep and heavy emotions in the bottom of my psyche. Using recurring motifs, such as different species of flora and fauna, help me to create continuity or looping thread through all my work, and to use the symbolism behind certain plants and flowers. For example, I painted lilies and hydrangeas in my body of work from Advanced Painting to represent the emotions and connections I would make about my dating life. I also use color, favoring monochromatic palettes to show how certain emotions and experiences impact me when they occur and how they still affect me now. While every piece made is not a self-portrait, all of my work is a reflection of me, whether it be physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually.
I will continue to make work reflecting who I am and all I’ve been through. For my next project, I plan to explore black women’s experience with sexuality, sensuality, risk for STI infections, sexual trauma, the intersectionality of all these things, and the consequences of all these causes. With the under representation, and often misrepresentation, of black women, I plan to add an authentic voice to the conversation of the black female sexual experience.
