Artist Spotlight: Adrienne Hey

I spent three years at the University of Western Ontario in Canada earning a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts. I am presently a receptionist at the University Bookstore and a bartender at Hokie House.

My work is an expression of colour. I like to think that my arm becomes an extension of my eye and I paint only what I see in front of me. With that, I strive to paint exactly what I witness, giving it life but staying true to the overall expression. At some point the colour and ideas start to make sense and the portrait inherits a certain clarity. Overall, I try to create cohesion between the clumsiness of the paint and the elegance of the face.

Working on a large scale allows me to play with bold colour and texture. However, when you step back from the piece, the painting's size allows me to show details like wrinkles or freckles that might be overlooked in a smaller work.

As far as influences, I love the honesty of Lucian Freud's work and the exactitude of Chuck Close. However, my own portraiture exhibits a kind of personal evolution. Each time I paint I learn something new about my technique. I also do a lot of people watching, which adds other dimensions to the subjects of my work. I aspire one day to work not only in portraiture but also in photography; that is, to have the chance to steer the emotion of the portrait but also to choose the subject, thereby incorporating further dimensions into the realism of the portrait.

I am creative if I am anything at all. You can ask anyone who truly knows me. I am constantly making and revising my "big plans." There was a time when I refinished wooden furniture. There were dreams of reupholstering couches. I even created a clothing company, ByStorm, for which I have designed a line of hoodies and t-shirts that the local boutique Home Body has graciously agreed to sell for me. So I have had many dreams as an artist, but I believe my true self does and always will have a paintbrush in hand. In conclusion, I am a painter because that is who I am at the very bottom of my soul and, as selfish as it sounds, I paint for myself, because I love it.