Courtney Lester

Lives and works in Penndel, PA, USA

Artist statement

My work questions both familiarity and authenticity through the lens of the North Country in an attempt to express long standing conveyance of the intricacies of coalescence and ostracization within rural communities. The nuance of colloquial conversation has long since been utilized in forms of storytelling, recognizable as myth or legend, and within the contemporary as tall tales, and remnants of superstition. Each possesses its own merit in masking and highlighting formative information, producing varying degrees of reality. The recreation, reliving, and retelling of an experience simultaneously provides clarity and produces an abstraction of a memory. One’s truth amounts from an amalgamation. By actively drawing from dramatized elements of regional sayings, I conduct a self-examination of subjective memory affected by dissociative disorder. Through this introspection, I aim to reveal the duality of preservation, specifically in terms of recall, truth, and language, as well as allow for an unabashed presence of delusion.

Artwork

• Merry Thoughts, 2022. One cuff of a bride’s gown, three wishbones, fur, white fencing, and daisy flooring.
• Cold Comfort, 2022. A blue couch, cherry vanilla ice cream, milk, one hotel key, a pair of gloves, a “blue suicide” necklace, one phone off the hook, and hobo sack made from a silk pillowcase emblazoned with the name “Sweetheart,".
• Mother's Milk, 2022. Embroidered fabric, a number one candle, deer hide, and vials of the artist’s blood.
• A Dying Thing Like Me, 2022. Deer hide, seasonal trim, miniature veils, barrettes, fake flowers.