Courtney Googe
about the artist
Courtney is a multidisciplinary artist currently working in Dallas, Texas with her husband, two daughters, and Lascaux the cat. She began her artistic career on the Mississippi Gulf Coast until Hurricane Katrina destroyed her town in 2005. Courtney received her BFA from the University of Wyoming in 2012 and her MFA from the University of Dallas in 2018. Presently, she teaches Art Appreciation at Tarrant County College South Campus, and aerial dance classes at SkyPole Fitness. In the summer she teaches printmaking workshop at Mudhouse Residency in Agios Ioannis, Crete, Greece.
Courtney believes that art can be found in every aspect of life, and that everything is connected. Influences not only come from intentional research and frequent visits to galleries and museums, but also her daughters, her travels, and her late-night thoughts. Courtney strives to live a life worth sharing- a life of boldness, inspiring others to seek their own adventure and do things they never thought they would do. Through exploring the movement of her body and traveling far from home are some ways she has challenged herself. In 2011 she spent a month in North India, in 2017 she developed a 5-day performance piece involving a trip to Roswell, New Mexico, and in 2018 she participated in an artist residency in Crete, Greece (and has returned as an instructor). She has balanced on a roof under a humid summer moon, braced herself in a decaying doorway, tiptoed along the edge of a cliff, hung upside down over crashing waves, danced in the middle of the desert at dawn, and done yoga in the street while wearing an old gas mask. These types of experiences are linked to her visual studio practice- either in preparation for a specific directive, or as a response to something unexpected. In addition to studio art, she has some background in art history, aerial dance, culinary arts, fencing, and museum practices. |
artist statement
I am interested in creating layers through overlapping imagery and process. It is the abstract that is projected upon and pressed upon the body.
My art-making is unapologetically autobiographical. I use my own body in my work for many reasons. First, because I believe I only have the right to interpret my own body and no one else’s; and second, because I suffer from depersonalization and body dysmorphia. By recreating my own body as a way to explore more abstract concepts, I am forced to observe it objectively in great detail. My studio practice is fluid as I respond to changing life situations, roles, and surroundings. Through the creation of imagery that pairs my body with something abstract- like a pattern, setting, or costume, I am able to reflect upon personal philosophies and use these images as a way to initiate deeper conversations with the viewer. In this instance the artistic processes of cyanotype combined with performance, photography, and drawing further allows me to consider that which is objective and recognizable with something more psychological. Lines and geometric shapes and patterns represent the human need to create structure, as time and space are chaotic without this artificial sense of security that comes from order. I work on a few separate bodies of work concurrently; each series is a result of exploring a specific objective, yet all are connected through this autobiographical perspective. |