2020 Senior Exhibition Artists 2020 Senior Exhibition Artists: Stevilyn Dybowski

Biography

Stevilyn Dybowski is a 21-year-old illustrator from Somerset, Massachusetts. She earned her BFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth this year, majoring in Illustration and minoring in Art History. Her most recent series ‘The Holiday Collection’ is a sequence of twelve illustrations dedicated to taking the ‘mascot’ of each month’s holiday and putting them in an untraditional setting that fits their primary occupation. The final product resulting as a 12-month functional calendar showcasing character and environment development.

Statement

The path to becoming the artist you envision yourself to be is not as straightforward as it may seem. It is not as simple as point ‘A’ to ‘B’. It is a winding road that takes you to the other side of the globe to countries you will probably never visit. A journey back in time to study artists who are long gone yet managed to do something incredible and light the darkened path to your next artistic adventure. Here is the part where I stop time for a moment, in the present, a twenty something year-old woman standing at a fork in the road looking at all the options in front of myself, pausing to take a breath.

Where I am going will look a lot different than where I am now and with that being said every word proceeding this one will echo the words “What next?” My art sits at the border of realism and abstraction with solid line and geometric shapes sewing the two together. Everyone in the art world always talks about ‘learning to see’ but what does this really mean? To me everything about that phrase means chance. Painting something so lucidly that the finished piece will ring the bells of familiarity but also quiet them with distance. You will recognize the surreal space remaining but only in the context of the complete silence of the strangest dreams embedded deep in your mind.

As once commented by Catherine Kehoe, the voice “within is loud and clear; it banishes all others from the studio.” The dream-like, the surreal, the things that resonate with the inner self hiding beneath the shield of reality; this is what my work brings as a parting gift to the viewer.

Why? Out of all the wonderful realities that I could choose from why should I even glance toward the non-existing particles residing in the deep banks of the subconscious? For it is here that the journey begins, only to be continued through paint strokes and fine lines in the studio. In the wise words of an artist who lit the way “Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision” (Salvador Dali.)

Contact

Email: stevilyn@comcast.net
Website: www.stevilyndybowski.com
Instagram: @stevilyndybowskiart
Portfolio: Stevilyn Dybowski - Artist

Slideshow

1. January, 2020, the New Years baby working at Planet Fitness, 6” x 6”
2. February, 2020, Cupid as a server on Valentine’s Day, 6” x 6”
3. March, 2020, A drunk leprechaun at a casino, 6” x 6”
4. April, 2020, The Easter Bunny becomes a pastor, 6” x 6”
5. May, 2020, Piñata has a rough day at work, 6” x 6”
6. June, 2020, Jason Voorhees works at a summer camp, 6” x 6”
7. July, 2020, Uncle Sam visits the Eiffel Tower, 6” x 6”
8. August, 2020, Friday the 13th tattoo shop, 6” x 6”
9. September, 2020, A school bus changes its look for the new school year, 6” x 6”
10. October, 2020, A witch gets tired of making pumpkin spice lattes, 6” x 6”
11. November, 2020, A turkey works as a supermarket cashier, 6” x 6”
12. December, 2020, Santa signs up to be a Grubhub delivery driver, 6” x 6”