Artist Statement
Humanity’s fascination with issues of the mind fail to account for its fragility and how quickly everything can unravel. There is an unspoken expectation when creating work about mental health that it is based strictly on trauma. My artwork is informed by delving into divergent issues that come from mental health while combating societal stigma surrounding speaking about these struggles. The outlining on my sculptures emphasize that these figures are not defined by their mental health. I utilize my own positive and negative experiences while using imagery found in science fiction, comic books and gothic art and architecture. I create heroic female figures that extend into the monumental. The resulting sculptures explore ritual, comfort and destigmatizes the viewer to see the humanity in the entire spectrum of wellbeing.
Artist Bio
Dia Webb is currently pursuing her M.F.A in Dimensional Practice in ceramics at the University of Iowa. She received her B.F.A. from Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA in 2017 and in 2018, spent a year as a Post baccalaureate student at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Most recently her work has been featured in the Graduate Biennial at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Between the Coasts in Lawrence Kansas and Surface Remix in Grinnell, Iowa. She has been a resident artist at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences in Rabun Gap, GA and will be doing a residency with Air Air residency in 2020. She has work in many private collections and is a part of the public collection of the Zuckerman Museum of Art in Kennesaw, Ga.