Divulging the Psyche

Lauren Lesley, Autumn Sinor, Chanya Cserepy

Autumn Sinor

Autumn Sinor’s work focuses on the exploration of self identity through aspects of cultural history, such as the Trail of Tears, Buffalo Massacre of the 1800s, Indian Residential Schools, as well as familial ties and memory. She uses various materials to create each piece, including traditional mediums, such as oil and acrylic paint, as well as grass collected from nature. She employs the interchangeable use of paintings, prints, woodwork, and sculpture as a way to resurrect the abstract concept of the past, aspects of loss, and connection. The recreation of familiar scenery is employed in a subconscious effort to reconnect with points in her childhood. The work aims to not only portray visual beauty, but to also bring to light the historical significance and trials that continue to plague Native Americans today.

Lauren Lesley

Lauren Lesley’s body of work directly references a scientific experiment intended to help further advance treatments of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Within the official study, marbles were placed inside the enclosure of mice with obsessive compulsive tendencies. Without treatment, the mice would compulsively bury each marble, but when given various forms of medication, the marbles remained untouched. The imagery of the mice and the marbles in Lauren’s work represents the relationship between obsessions and compulsions. Each of the pieces replicates specific feelings associated with OCD, including fear, confusion, anticipation, doubt, and relief, in an attempt to show multiple sides of a mental illness that is so often misunderstood.

Chanya Cserepy

Chanya Cserepy’s body of work consists of paintings and sculptures that explore the subject of mental health through the figure. Through the use of visual metaphors (textures, colours), her body of work aims to address social stigmas and alleviate the misperceptions and adverse connotations associated with mental health. By focusing on the figure she is able to draw attention to disorders such as PTSD, insomnia and depression in a manner that enables her to connect to the world around her.

The body of work is largely about her personal experience and coexistence with mental health. Drawing stimulus from her own uphill battle with mental illness, each of her artworks are a direct depiction of the inner turmoils and hidden struggles that accompany facing and conquering one’s demons. Her most recent work addresses her battle with PTSD and the constant anxiety that is tied with it. Her sculptures uses techniques of glass screen printing to ultimately portray rumination and persistent tension; while, screen printing on glass and popsicle sticks expresses the repetition and turmoil experienced within one's mind.