Natalie Archibee | SUNY Oswego

Natalie Archibee
Camden, NY
[email protected]

BFA Fine Arts, Painting Concentration

Biography

Natalie Archibee is an artist of various media from Camden, NY. After completing 16 credits through Mohawk Valley Community College in high school, she continued her permanent studies at SUNY Oswego in 2018. Natalie is a graduate of the Class of 2021 with a BFA in Studio Art, painting concentration, and Art History minor.

Between drawing and painting, Natalie creates a wide variety of artwork investigating her identity. Starting her career in high school, Natalie earned a Silver Key Portfolio as well as a Silver Key and four Honorable Mentions for individual works in the 2018 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. During her time at Oswego, her work has continued to be shown in various group exhibitions winning her the Al Bremmer Award in the 58th Juried Art Student Exhibition at Tyler Art Gallery and First Place at the 23rd Lakeside Statewide Juried Art Exhibition at The Art Association of Oswego. The SUNY Oswego Art Department faculty has also honored Natalie with the 2021 Robert M. Sullins Studio Award as well as the 2020 Grant Arnold Award for her academic growth through the years.

Once graduated, Natalie will continue her academic studies at SUNY Oswego through the MAT Program to pursue a career in K-12 art teaching.

Artist Statement

When thinking about the body of work I wanted to represent me as I approached the completion of my BFA at SUNY Oswego, I discovered an interest in personal identity as it is the only constant in my life. Exploring this side of art, I found that I can be versions of myself that aren’t exactly true to what others see from my exterior. Within my work, I use charcoal and oil paint to create surreal self-portraits to shapeshift into different beings, depending on how I want to be viewed or how I am feeling inside.

When focusing on personal identity within art, we can see character development over a duration of years. Making these portraits of myself has allowed me to create my own time stamps on my life that I may not remember otherwise. I continue to create these pieces as reflecting on identity and who I am has been overall healing to me. With this body of work, I hope the spectator feels as involved in my ideas as I was when creating the piece and allows them to pause and reflect upon themselves.

This charcoal drawing is a full-body self-portrait of the female artist holding a mirror and gazing out at the viewer. The image is drawn at a lower perspective so the mirror is seemingly larger than the individual behind it. Coming out of the mirror and appearing to be set down by the main figure is another face with its eyes closed. On top of the built-up charcoal reads the words “Do you know who you are?” amongst the two figure’s flesh. This phrase is repeated and layered to create added volume to the li

Do You Know Who You Are?
Charcoal and Pen on Paper
48” x 36”
2020
ART 422: Advanced Drawing & Painting
This charcoal drawing is a full-body self-portrait of the female artist holding a mirror and gazing out at the viewer. The image is drawn at a lower perspective so the mirror is seemingly larger than the individual behind it. Coming out of the mirror and appearing to be set down by the main figure is another face with its eyes closed. On top of the built-up charcoal reads the words “Do you know who you are?” amongst the two figure’s flesh. This phrase is repeated and layered to create added volume to the ligaments.

This soft pastel drawing is a self-portrait of the female artist depicted shoulders up. Coming from behind the figure are six arms aggressively grabbing and taunting the individual. Two of the most prominent arms are choking and covering the mouth of the female. The drawing is built up exclusively of charcoal pastel with added blue and purple color pastel to transition the mid-tones and darks of the figure. The background is black with a blue glow coming from behind the individual.

Athena
Soft Pastel on Paper
36” x 43.5”
2020
ART 422: Advanced Drawing & Painting
This soft pastel drawing is a self-portrait of the female artist depicted shoulders up. Coming from behind the figure are six arms aggressively grabbing and taunting the individual. Two of the most prominent arms are choking and covering the mouth of the female. The drawing is built up exclusively of charcoal pastel with added blue and purple color pastel to transition the mid-tones and darks of the figure. The background is black with a blue glow coming from behind the individual.

This oil painting is in the shape of a circle, mimicking the style of a stained glass window with eight smaller circles lining the rim. The smaller circles are outlined with dark brown, acting as iron, with a straight line on the inner side of each. These lines attach them all to an even smaller circle in the middle. Within these nine circles are various shades of yellow, abstracted carnation leaves, outlined in white. Between every other line is a green leaf. Behind all of this imagery is a self-portrait o

Stained
Oil on Wood
36” x 36”
2021
ART: 415: Painting 4
This oil painting is in the shape of a circle, mimicking the style of a stained glass window with eight smaller circles lining the rim. The smaller circles are outlined with dark brown, acting as iron, with a straight line on the inner side of each. These lines attach them all to an even smaller circle in the middle. Within these nine circles are various shades of yellow, abstracted carnation leaves, outlined in white. Between every other line is a green leaf. Behind all of this imagery is a self-portrait of the artist herself positioned in the left of the painting. The window imagery transitions to be more transparent when overlapping the figure so the viewer is still able to see some details of the face and acknowledge she is present.

This oil painting is a self-portrait of the female artist. It is of a hand holding a mirror with a reflection of the artist’s face, as the viewer, shown inside. The skin tones are made up of a warm, minimal, color palette which is contrasted with the cool gray mirror and background surrounding the figure.

Mirror, Mirror
Oil on Illustration Board
24” x 18”
2020
ART 422: Advanced Drawing & Painting
This oil painting is a self-portrait of the female artist. It is of a hand holding a mirror with a reflection of the artist’s face, as the viewer, shown inside. The skin tones are made up of a warm, minimal, color palette which is contrasted with the cool gray mirror and background surrounding the figure.

Natalie
Charcoal on Paper
24” x 18”
2020
ART 422: Advanced Drawing & Painting
This charcoal drawing is a profile self-portrait of the female artist from the shoulders up. This is drawn in a traditional sense where features and volume are built up by arranging light are dark value amongst the figure.

This oil painting is a self-portrait of the artist from the shoulders up, gazing out at the viewer. This image plays with color so all of the figure’s facial features are done in a turquoise blue using green as shadows and white as highlights. The hair framing the figure is dark green to pull out the green depth within the face. The colored face ends at the chin and allows the neck and the glimpse we see of the shoulder area to be skin tone. The flesh color is also the background hue which makes the image l

Blue
Oil on Canvas Board
12” x 9”
2021
ART 415: Painting 4
This oil painting is a self-portrait of the artist from the shoulders up, gazing out at the viewer. This image plays with color so all of the figure’s facial features are done in a turquoise blue using green as shadows and white as highlights. The hair framing the figure is dark green to pull out the green depth within the face. The colored face ends at the chin and allows the neck and the glimpse we see of the shoulder area to be skin tone. The flesh color is also the background hue which makes the image look odd as the viewer is confused about where the body starts and ends.

This image is a digital self-portrait of the female artist sitting in bed, doing homework. The illustration is done from a lower point of view so the legs and thighs are the largest mass in the image. A laptop is resting on the figure’s knees as she holds it with its glow coating her face. She has a blanket wrapped around her head to compliment the illustration’s comforting feel its grey and purple color scheme gives off.

Habitat
Digital Illustration
10” x 8”
2021
ART 313: Digital Illustration I
This image is a digital self-portrait of the female artist sitting in bed, doing homework. The illustration is done from a lower point of view so the legs and thighs are the largest mass in the image. A laptop is resting on the figure’s knees as she holds it with its glow coating her face. She has a blanket wrapped around her head to compliment the illustration’s comforting feel its grey and purple color scheme gives off.

Untitled
Marker on Paper
24” x 18”
2020
ART 422: Advanced Drawing & Painting
In this drawing, we see a mirror from a side angle, being held. A female face profile is coming out of the mirror which happens to be a self-portrait of the artist. The volume of the piece is built entirely out of words layered in black Sharpie marker. The phrase “Do you know who you are?” repeats throughout the image, more heavily in some areas, to create a cohesive depth in the figure and mirror.

This piece is of two charcoal self-portraits of the female artist with one body in front of the other. The figure behind is reaching around to the front of the other and lifting her cheeks to create a fabricated smile. The front figure is looking back when this is happening. Behind the figures is an organic red shape with a lighter red, unidentifiable text filling the shape as it is cropped.

Enough I
Mixed Media
30” x 22”
ART 205: Design Concepts II - 2D
This piece is of two charcoal self-portraits of the female artist with one body in front of the other. The figure behind is reaching around to the front of the other and lifting her cheeks to create a fabricated smile. The front figure is looking back when this is happening. Behind the figures is an organic red shape with a lighter red, unidentifiable text filling the shape as it is cropped.

This piece is of two charcoal self-portraits of the female artist with one smaller body inside of the other. The large figure is looking down at the smaller one inside of her as the smaller one is looking back up. The smaller figure is leaning on a railing inside the body as if she is living within the individual. Behind the figures is an organic red shape with a lighter red, unidentifiable text filling the shape as it is cropped.

Enough II
Mixed Media
30” x 22”
2021
ART 205: Design Concepts II - 2D
This piece is of two charcoal self-portraits of the female artist with one smaller body inside of the other. The large figure is looking down at the smaller one inside of her as the smaller one is looking back up. The smaller figure is leaning on a railing inside the body as if she is living within the individual. Behind the figures is an organic red shape with a lighter red, unidentifiable text filling the shape as it is cropped.