Audrey Ushenko facts for kids
Audrey Ushenko is an American artist born in 1945. She is known for her realistic paintings, mostly using oil paints. She teaches drawing and painting at Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne.
Early Life and Education
Ushenko was born in Princeton, New Jersey. She studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1964. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Indiana University Bloomington in 1965. Later, she received a Master of Arts degree in painting from Northwestern University in 1967. In 1978, she completed her doctoral degree in art history, also from Northwestern University.
Audrey Ushenko's Artworks
Ushenko has shown her art in more than 20 solo exhibitions. She has also been part of many group shows. Her art is represented by Denise Bibro Fine Art in New York City.
Her background in English literature has influenced her paintings. She also gets ideas from Greek mythology, old images from the 1600s and 1700s, and everyday social interactions. She often uses light and shadow in her work. This gives her paintings an impressionist style. Art critic Gerrit Henry called Ushenko "a master chronicler of realities." He noted that she makes even everyday objects seem lively. Ushenko sometimes uses herself as a model. She says this is mostly because it is convenient.
Ushenko sometimes paints groups of people. She often shows them in their real surroundings. She explores how people interact with each other. She also looks at how they relate to the natural world and things people build. She often paints the same model in different poses. These poses often show a contrast. For example, one model might be in shade and another in full sunlight. This shows a sense of two opposing ideas. In many of Ushenko's paintings, something seems to have just happened. Or something is just about to happen.
According to Ushenko, the meaning of a painting grows as she works on it. It is not decided from the very beginning. For example, in her painting Vanitas VIII, there seem to be five images of Ushenko in one room. This painting seems to show the many different sides each person has. People often show these different sides in a single day. In her painting at the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine, she was inspired by the "human drama" happening there. She wanted to create a work to show it. Patients and staff could watch Ushenko paint. Many of them were included in the large, three-story artwork.
