Gabrielle Dobrzelewski

Artist Statement:

My body exists as both center and symbol in my work. Positioned in the intimate domestic space of my residence, the emotionally charged self-portraits I create serve as points of departure for exploring larger topics of interest – grief, desire, anxiety, death, spirituality, femininity, and dreams. Similar to the intimacy of the innerworkings of one’s psyche, utilizing my domestic space serves as the physical manifestation of my inner world. 

The narratives I engage in emerge from the well of my lived experiences. However, as I move through the process of creating a work external associations begin to reveal themselves to me – connecting Self to World. The pieces become a kind of cataloguing of my journey into myself as I experience life, while simultaneously acting as a means for me to become bigger than my own body and experience. 

My likeness enters into the realm of the symbol, becoming an armature for a larger poetry and longing. The tension between specificity and to expand beyond that specificity goes expressed (but ultimately unresolved).  I strive to actively live my questions. The questions and unresolvedness of it all is life giving – to have the questions resolve themselves would result in the need to create these images to cease.