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Brandish

Words about words, brands, names and naming, and the creative process.

#sparkchamber 032822 — Amber Vittoria

On the last Monday of Women’s History Month, #sparkchamber completes its four Monday’s of remarkable, amazing women with artist and poet Amber Vittoria Through her artwork — ribbons of color and joyous words — Amber aims to represent the nuances of womanhood. [Excerpted from this article from It’s Nice That ] “[H]er work is focused on non-traditional, or non-idealized, representations of the female form. Her characters appear in elaborate poses, with jiggly limbs, big thighs and prickly body hair; as exaggerated but essentially more accurate portrayals of women’s bodies.”

Taking advantage of the fluidity of her ink, color pencil, and acrylic paints, Amber creates aqueous rainbow gradients that dominate her compositions. Punctuated by simple graphite line drawings and impactful words, her work draws on her relationship to femininity, emotion, and societal expectations. To best display her use of form and color, her final pieces balance a digital and analog process — blocking in shapes digitally before printing out the forms and working with brush pens; intentionally balancing a vivid, inviting color palette with more serious, challenging subject matter.

Amber’s poetry takes snapshots of womanhood, as she grows into herself as a woman within our society. Her first published book of poetry and art, These Are My Big Girl Pants, is set to release with Andrews McMeel in 2023.

Until then, celebrate all the awesome of grrl power and check out her gift shop!

 1.] Where do ideas come from?

My work is inspired by the loved experience of women, and my palettes are inspired by nature [as we ourselves are too nature].

2.] What is the itch you are scratching?

Painting and poetry are both how I express myself most accurately, which is why I love to create so often; it’s my form of communication.

3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?

It depends on the day; some blocks of time I like to paint in the morning, other times at night. Very gemini of me, I know.

4.] How do you know when you are done?

When a stroke I’ve added weakens the piece.