Cecelia Ivy

I’m a deep thinker drawn to the dark side of life. I like to share knowledge with others as well as absorb it. Through struggles such as the loss of my mother, I have learned to take life’s difficulties and morph them into something others can understand and attempt to relate to.
I find inspiration in nature as well as street art, movies, urban decay and all forms of music.

I like to work with nature to pull out saturated color to enhance the beauty that already exists there but is subdued. It is in this way that I bring work to life with my brushstrokes while my hand built panels show my dedication to the process of creating a work.

I have a fascination with vanitas, which is a type of symbolic work of art especially associated with still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries, though also common in other places and periods. This Latin term means “vainty” and, loosely translated, corresponds to the insignificance of earthly life as well as the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. Common vanitas symbols include skulls, which serve as a reminder of the certainty of death. I enjoy the idea of the Mexican holiday Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) to celebrate those who have passed. I am also beginning to explore the human figure by using myself in nude form for one of my current series. Challenges I face are having to get past the misconceptions that skulls are “scary,” nudity is “porn,” and the false sense of “perfection” i