Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski’s art is all over the place. Currently attending the Yale School of Art for an MFA in Painting and Printmaking, her work incorporates drawing, installation, and performance.
“I use materials that are classed as femme, foolish, too much, and disposable; sequins, mirror, beauty supplies,” says DeJesus Moleski in an interview with Art of Choice. “In the lineage of drag and carnival, I re-claim these materials and let them take up space and ritual significance. For the past year I’ve centered light, mirror, and video as my primary materials. My main exploration has been around how I can have flamboyant material objects produce the ephemeral lighting conditions under which that object is seen. Sequin refracts video content into illegible constellations, mirrors bend white light into rainbows.”
Her process always begins with a “commitment to show up,” especially when she doesn’t know what she’s doing. “Material experimentation is a big part of how I begin, and most of it doesn’t amount to anything I would want to show people,” she jokes. “But I’ve learned that I have to do it. A lot of listening to music and trying to make rainbows in the dark.”
Based in New Haven, CT, the multidisciplinary artist has gained quite a following, with more than 8,000 fans on Instagram alone. “I see my drawings as one ongoing project,” she says, “wondering if repetitious symbols and communication through images can slip between the stubbornness of our words and shift our collective perceptions of being and belonging.”
Take a peek into her exciting worlds below.
