Aubrey Derryberry : SPIKY Artist
My Artist Story
Hey, I’m Aubrey Derryberry.
I am an artist of many mediums and an intuitive healer.
Art, music, dance, and writing are what saved me from growing up in a traumatic home.
Creativity is regenerative and has the most powerful capacity to heal.
I share the tools that have worked for me to help others. I particularly enjoy art that engages, interacts, and blurs the line between audience and performer.
Through art, I want people to tap into what makes them feel most alive, to remember who they are, and to connect to what is deepest and most authentic.
I am drawn to artists who have been the most bold in their self-expressions and who have transformed their traumatic experiences into art.
Frida Kahlo is one of these. Through her self-portraits, she showed us who she truly is as opposed to what people wanted to see. She incorporated her pain into her work. She did not hide.
The designer Alexander McQueen is another artist whose work I adore. He was not afraid to push boundaries and incorporate the raw, dark elements into his art. He made what was real instead of trying to please others. He was a brutal truthteller.
I aim to be the same.
SPIKY by Aubrey Derryberry
When I think of the word “spiky,” what comes to me are sharp edges, studs, prickly bits.
These are typically things that evoke fear and avoidance when summoned. The concept of Sergio and Anais’ jewelry flips the typical meaning upside down and transforms it into something inclusive. It takes what is normally cast out and integrates it into the body, to be worn boldly instead of hidden.
In response, I felt compelled to further explore this as an artist. What about my spiky bits – my anxieties, self-consciousness, shame–the things I don’t want to show in fear I will be rejected and cast out? How can I allow those aspects to come through and take center stage? Do I give my shadows a chance to speak? Can I allow my raw, gritty, messy aspects to come forth and be seen?
As a trauma survivor, I have long struggled with shame, particularly when it comes to intimacy and sexuality. Working through and revealing these aspects of myself, my skin, and my body has been really difficult. Being photographed has also been a trigger due to past traumas in that area. It has distorted my self-concept.
By creating self-portraits, I worked through these aspects and reenvisioned myself through my own eyes. At the risk of rejection, I am allowing myself to be seen as I truly am. I am embracing the messy, untamed, naked parts of me.
I am giving myself permission to be spiky.
Keep Making Art
Find out more:
https://www.instagram.com/aubreyderryberry/
https://www.facebook.com/aubreyderryberry
aderryberrydurnin@gmail.com
