Star Trauth

Pills and Feelings

Photography/ Digital Art - 14 x 5 inches

Pills, digital manipulation. Bedridden and frustrated over not being able to do anything. I had a bit of a tantrum and dumped my pills out and I realized that they were beautiful so I began to shape them and photograph them. I wanted to shape them into something positive like a flower, and I wanted to use, each individual set of pills to describe what each one was treating. Looking back at the pictures I wanted to digitally manipulate them to make the only kind of art I could make at the time.

Trauma

Mixed Media with Digital - 14 x 5 inches

Digital Collage. Using my actual scans, cancer-related ephemera, and hand, drawing, to describe my feelings as I was going through treatment.

I was out of it, between the pain and the meds. I couldn’t even think about doing something artistic. Then I began digitally manipulating collage photos to make them more colorful and textural, it gave me hope amidst the mess. I’m getting my strength back and returning to my original media, fiber. But I will never leave my digital photography behind. It’s my desire to create my imagination into something tangible and to start a conversation.

Star Trauth is an award-winning artist, activist, and writer. She received her degree in Fine Arts and continues to study related to her field. It did not please Trauth to recreate the creation. She states, “The purpose of my art is to reconnect me to my experiential roots and set them free in the work.” Her practice seeks to attract the audience visually and start a conversation. Her work is heavily inspired by music, experiences from her adventurous life, and currently a fierce battle with cancer. This has also led her to dabble in new media while she regains her strength. Star has been curated into over 100 exhibitions in eight years, awarded the Robert Rauschenberg Grant, and been in many publications; magazine, newspaper, and books.

Artist website link