An Exercise In Contradiction.

                 Constance SHERESE  is the artistic persona of self taught, experimental Artist, Writer, and Founder of  The CultSTATUS Arts Haven, Constance Collier-Mercado. Intrigued by ideas of motion, power, nostalgia, and coding often found in surreal, abstract, and many political styles of art; Constance SHERESE  is the resulting series of  "non self portraits" she uses to create similar interventions in her own work.

 

Many of her early visual studies focused on a contrast between the ethereal and the literal: Wings & Angels vs. Still-life’s & Portraits. Expanding on this foundation, her newer work explores contrasts between the static and the infinite: Past Selves vs. Future Selves as they relate to womanist principles of global blackness, land wealth, and harmony among animalia/wilderness. The finished pieces are usually a melding between psychedelic bright color, feminine and/or animalistic figures, and rustic pieces like tree branches, feathers, charcoal, rice, and grain.

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Heavy in layering techniques and fusion with other three dimensional objects (often placed over a photographic base); Constance notes that her creative process runs contrary to monogamous views of inspiration because scatter best speaks to the way she conceives of her artwork. Her work is informed as much by her multidisciplinary interests as by her immediate ties to Chicago and the Bronx as well as her extended Mississippi Delta, Gullah Geechee roots. Combined, these influences work to form an ekphrastic bond that highlights both difference and connection.

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