Artist

Statement

Author and Artist Davida Kilgore’s portrait of Virginia Townsend

As an artist, I express my experience with mental health and skills through abstract and figurative art. My visual language feels intuitive and novel, connecting color to mood, activity to internal activation, and intersecting structures to inner unrest. I do this alongside figurative depictions to enhance the viewers’ ability to creatively interpret. Using acrylic paint I paint quickly and efficiently, at the same pace as my thoughts. My palette combines neon, fluorescent and rich, warm earth tones, and contrasting colors to render a full spectrum encounter. Changing mark making tools fosters visual depth and meaning, whether a rugged edge as pain of loss, or rows of lines as repeating behavior.  

I have a long history in sex work and when I quit to make art full time, I communicated my experience with alcohol ink images of unclothed or lingerie-wearing bodies. After being introduced to abstract art, it occurred to me that I can bring up issues of sexuality, power, and pain without even hinting at a persons physical form. Specifically, omitting body parts society sexualizes most.

I start each painting with an open mind, allowing the creative process to unfold organically.  I let the events of the day and week trickle through my consciousness, guiding how fast I put down a line, the pressure I use, and how many times a section breaks apart. As the painting draws to a close, its message becomes apparent to me. My works contain joy, anger, flashbacks, nightmares, memories, hope, trauma, and coping skills, with an overarching theme of healing.