Most artists start with a sketch or at least some sort of general plan. Painter and animator Amanda Bent doesn't.
Her process is to make a mess until something in it appeals to her, and until she finds something interesting and funny to build off of.
"I don't really start with an idea ever," Bent said. "As I'm working, a form comes out that I recognize, like the shape of the United States or corn."
She then expands her original idea by including artistic elements that stereotype her original form. The additional ideas build on each other, one leading to the next but not necessarily relating to her original meaning.
Stream of consciousness painting often leads to outlandish connections. For example, the first thing she thought of when she was thinking about deserts was pyramids and camels, which are foreign in the context of the American landscape but are the logical result of years of social conditioning as well as a lack of first-hand experience in the Southwestern United States.
"[In my pieces] there are a lot of women, politics, and there is a lot of humor, a lot of it in bad taste because bad taste is sometimes your first instinct," Bent said.
Each element adds another layer to the piece, frequently contrasting but always interesting. Sometimes, like in this piece, the idea of pyramids in the American deserts fosters the idea of a lack of knowledge in the general population, which is a legitimate critique of our society.
Perhaps the pyramids can stand as an international symbol that can be appreciated despite the incongruence. Bent understands this possibility and knows that art should always have infinite amounts of interpretations.
"There are always many ways to look at anything," she said.
Bent used to create the usual way, beginning with a sketch and attempting to transfer specific shapes to the canvas. But she found that she wasn't getting the results she wanted. Now there is a dialogue between the canvas and each element she adds to her painting.
"The painting is telling me what to do," Bent said. "Sometimes what I paint is something that isn't even my own opinion."
