Artists Biography
Andrea was born and raised in Salem, Oregon. She graduated from Colby College, in Waterville, Maine, with a dual major in Neurobiology and Studio Art. She returned back to her home state to continue working on her gender bending series and be closer to family.
Her first and most recent art show was the Colby Senior Exhibition. Here, she showed her three full-figure paintings that focused on gender-bending and gender fluidity.
When she is not in the studio or working on other artistic projects you will most likely find her hiking and exploring, seeking out furry animals, or at one of the many local breweries and wineries.
Featured Works
Artists Statement
The head and face of the question I seek to focus on is: How do you describe who a person is? To many it is as simple as their height, gender, sexuality, hobbies, skin tone, or their chosen skin of clothing. Along with these come socially reinforced ideas surrounding appearances. That a woman, with commensurate education and experience, is not worthy of obtaining the same pay as a man in her position. That a man of color shopping in a grocery store should cause double-takes and switching of aisles. They are people. A person’s appearance, gender, skin tone, clothing, hair style, piercings, and tattoos are not indicators of a person’s true nature.
Down the neck, shoulders, elbows, and wrists, the two hands that shaped my work are my parents. From the outside, a home making father, who is a nurturing caregiver and marvelous cook, along-side a bread-winning mother, who is a task finisher and lover of all things outdoors, seem culturally backwards. Societal expectations of gender roles lead to the perception that the father is unfulfilled and the mother does not love her children. Whether my parents meant to or not, they made these roles flexible to bend, break, and open for everyone who surrounds them to enjoy. Two adults that worked together unintentionally to dismantle biases that surround their lives, while they love and succeed in their lives.
From the feet, up the ankles, shins, knees, thighs, hips, belly and in through the sternum to the core of my work. Through art I want to express that we as a society need to build women up to become valued and treated equal to men and from there to expand all typically gendered roles. I strive to dismantle binary gender stereotypes and roles, occasionally flip stereotypes on their head, and in the end to show people as people.
Exhibition Experiences
2020 February-September (Juried) Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center – She: An Expression of Womanhood
2019 May Colby College – Senior Exhibition
ANDREA VELAZQUEZ 