Artist statement
Cityscapes – The intersection of nature and civilization and the conflict within
Tarryn Pereida
Artist
I have been an artist all of my life. For almost as long as I’ve been an artist I’ve been an activist. Both of these things are something that I gold very close to my heart and mean very much to me. I have spent the last 10 years living intentionally, 8 of which at an intentional community which I helped found in 2008. Activism, and art are my life. That along with music of course. I like to think that my work reflects this. My preference for art to create is abstract realism. I am heavily inspired by Frida Kahlo as an artist and the Dada movement in general. I am drawn to abstract imagery and photography in general. I like art that pushes the boundaries of concepts. I also love dark dramatic tones, vivid colors, and deep shadows in my photographs. I try to imagine what Frida may have been to photograph as I wandered through the city on my own commute. What she would find interesting along the way and tried to reflect that in these images.
As an artist and activist I find it important to create work that elicits some kind of deep emotional response be it positive or negative in nature. My overall vision is to show the virility of nature against the juxtaposition of the dead concrete work of city life. How thriving wildlife exists in cracks and corners of the sidewalks alongside the parks. Though I do have experience in photography, my primary choice for creating art has always been painting or sculpture. I want to recreate some of the texture of painting in my photography, this can be seen in some of my waterscape photographs from another project.
The images on this page are of a series I called “Commute” . It is a successionary photo collection where each image is relevant to the next, to tell a story of sorts. In this case the story of a city worker’s commute home. There are moments of black and white along with full vibrant color photos, each telling its own tale. The deep dark shadows are meant to convey an intensity you can feel when living in the city, the countryside may not have the same energy. The bright images show the vibrancy of life against the black and white images of man made infrastructure, such as roads, cars, walkways, etc. The images move in a fluid path as the eye travels from one image to the next. The roads lead us through the pathway of cityscape alongside bridges and walking paths, to neighboring homes and other buildings. We travel here, together in this piece.
Raised all over the East Coast of the USA, I settled in Baltimore Maryland for over 16 years now. I would consider myself a Baltimore Artist. Additionally to creating art, I am a musician, photographer, cinematographer, videographer, graphic designer, apothecary worker, model and painter, and witch.
