FINE ArT

Below is a selection of my artworks in descending order.

For the most immersive viewing experience, consider opening this page on a large screen.

The Waystation Project

The Waystation project was aimed at affecting the energy in my neighborhood through creating sites for transmutation, energetic action and consciousness raising. This project was the subject of my MFA thesis titled “Encountering the Other: Art and engagement in the time of late-stage capitalism.”

The project involved creating waystations - simple, decorated constructions built from secondhand or found materials that allowed for a high level of community accessibility and easy engagement. Each waystation had a specific purpose based on my felt and observed sense of the various needs of the community in which it was placed. I was able to share this project with Intermedia MFA students who also created their own waystation with high levels of success.

A small black waystation attached to a chain link fence in the middle of a dirt lot at night. The waystation is illuminated with battery operated tea lights and the words "Where are you going" are visible on the waystation

A small black waystation attached to a chain link fence with cream-colored corrugated metal behind it. Pieces of white chalk and ballpoint pens hang off the waystation on long strings. Words "What do you need write it down make it so" are visible

The "Take what you need" waystation placed on the shady side of an abandoned building surrounded by some pieces of baby swings, a bicycle, a plastic lawnchair, and a person sleeping on a bare mattress. It's a sunny day with bright blue sky and clouds

The dirty surface of a white painted waystation features an opening with a tangle of yarn and ribbons. The text "tie a knot. Honor knots tied" is written on the surface in black marker

A white waystation covered in writing, on the ground leaning up against a brick wall. A garland of silk sunflowers is laying across the top

A closeup of a white waystation covered in writing

Waystation Generation

Waystation Generation was the artistic culmination of the Waystation project above. It was a display of the documentation from the project, the zine I created for building one’s own waystation, and a selection of materials for creating a waystation to be brought out into the world.

The video shows the piece before interaction, the photos below shows the piece after interaction. Nobody took away anything from the piece as I had intended, rather the whole piece itself became a type of waystation.

waystation generation piece at the end of the exhibit. There is a long table covered with a black tablecloth and strewn with art and craft supplies, and white-painted pieces with decoration. In the background are framed photos and a digital screen

A documentation photo from Amanda Rose's Waystation Generation piece featuring a white surface with the word "Yay" painted on and a sharpie drawing of a face

A documentation photo from Amanda Rose's Waystation Generation piece

A documentation photo from Amanda Rose's Waystation Generation piece featuring a small glass container with a silk flower resting on top, a white-painted waystation with stars and planets drawn on with black marker

A documentation photo from Amanda Rose's Waystation Generation piece featuring a white waystation with the words "no way out" cut out of a magazine and glued on. A long black table with art supplies is in the background

A documentation photo from Waystation Generation piece featuring a bright pink hand painted surface with the words "Object permance [sic]" written in black marker with a cutout of a torso and legs wearing a knee-length skirt and high heels

A documentation photo from Amanda Rose's Waystation Generation piece featuring bright paint smears and marker lines on a white background with a cut-out picture of a stop sign beneath

A documentation photo from Amanda Rose's Waystation Generation piece featuring a white piece with green paint, writing in black marker is visible

A documentation photo from Amanda Rose's Waystation Generation piece featuring a close up of the table with lengths of white ribbon and silk flowers visible

Silent Witness

Silent Witness is a durational performance piece that examines the perception of time, loneliness, and the way that the observer affects the observed and vice versa.

This antique chair has been in my life since I was born and has traveled with me from the Northeast to the Southwest. Even though well over 200 years ago it was built to sit around the table at the center of home activity, it has spent most of my lifetime in the corners of rooms, a place for towels and worn clothes, but a witness to some of the most private moments in my and my family’s history.

a chair facing the entrance of a labyrinth outlined with stones in the dirt. A brilliant desert sunset is in the sky

A brown chair sits next to a ocotillo plant in some shrubby dunes. A bright blue sky and hazy mountains in the distance

a chair is sitting on a concrete sidewalk with a dramatic shadow behind it and shapes made by light reflecting off of plate glass

chair in the dirt in a clearing in the woods, an abandoned campsite and a charred log is in the background

The Oracular Series

The Oracular series was my foray into doing Tarot readings in a public-facing way. This is a series of short, social media-specific videos made from creative commons video footage, tarot and oracle card readings, and the triangulation between the two became the message. To see all of the videos from this series, check out my Vimeo.

Five of Pentacles was created to be a visceral representation of the physical hardships and lengths that women have had to go through to maintain bodily autonomy, both now and throughout history.

It consisted of a series of hospital gowns I handmade and then printed using cyanotype solution and black tea to simulate the look of old blood. Like blood, cyanotype solution’s main components contain iron. Along with the physical gowns, this project also produced the black and white photo of myself wearing the gown. Without any clear fashion or technology cues present in the photo, it could have been taken place at almost any time in history.

Five of Pentacles

The lower half of a brown-stained hospital gown, the outline of a hanger is visible in the stain

White hospital gowns with some brown staining hanging on white hangers

The back of a white hospital gown with fabric ties on a dress form in dramatic lighting

A white hospital gown with brown staining on the bottom half arranged on a dress form with a clothing rack and a number of similar gowns on hangers on the rack.

black and white photo of a person wearing a darkly-stained white hospital gown, standing outside barefoot in the grass holding their stomach and doubled over

How to Feel Better

This piece utilized methods prescribed by my then-therapist to release my suppressed anger in its creation. Showing the work of exorcizing familial demons.

Using ink, a collection of personally meaningful materials (including copies of “The God Delusion” and “The Desire of Ages,” China cups and plates, and a novelty eraser) and a unique mark-making technique, this piece was meant to put the messy, sometimes destructive process of mental healing into a physical form.

The how to feel better piece by Amanda Rose on display in a gallery.

How Do You Sleep At Night?

This piece comes out of the paradox of rage and self care, the desire to harm and the desire to heal, all while finding yourself carrying a burden that no one asked you to carry.

A binding ritual for a dangerous person overlayed with clips from an ASMR video that I have listened to on hundreds of nights to help me sleep as I worked through the secondhand trauma of feeling powerless when a loved one has been harmed.

Logical Conclusion

How far do we go when we are given guidance from beyond ourselves? How completely do we submit to the will of unseen forces?