2021 Senior Exhibition Artists

Ally Watts

Art + Design: Drawing

About Ally Watts

Ally Watts is an artist interested in the remnants of life in the absence of the figure. She explores this by analyzing her relationship with objects and representing them in a figurative manner through charcoal, graphite, and ink. The emotive quality of high-contrast value paired with the significance of the subjects observed are the aspects of her work she puts the greatest emphasis on. Also fascinated with typography, her hand-lettered signs are prominently and proudly displayed by the owners of Sabitado’s Pizzeria in her hometown of Tiverton, Rhode Island.

Statement

“If no one knows you are alive, you aren’t. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, it does make a sound, but then that sound is gone.” -Neil Hilborn.

I draw and meditate upon the forgotten corners of life we so often cast aside. I am fascinated with the evidence of life in the figure’s absence. Pillows are a consistent object in our most intimate moments, yet we are encouraged to cycle through them yearly. The pillows that we punch, cry into, squeeze, hug, throw, fight with; that absorb all of our energy, our emotions, our overflow. These are not just objects, not just withered or flattened or torn. Pillows are the presence of ourselves in our absence. Pillows hold everything that is too heavy for us to carry during the day. Pillows are our record of existence. Pillows are the only ones who know what happens when we are asleep. Pillows are our proof we have lived. Pillows hear the trees falling in the forest. And when the tree cries out, the pillows hear that too.