Dicken, Abby

A Witch’s Lucid Dream, the exhibition. 2022

Abby Dicken is an artist that specialises in physical and digital arts and makeup. Her key elements in her art are her interpretations of surrealistic art as well as inspirations from her life. The mediums she uses are painting, drawing, digital art, and makeup. Abby’s goal for her art is to pursue a career in art where she can continuously be inspired by her surroundings.

The Pick Your Joke pastel watercolour drawing was made in a state of frustration. I had bottled up a lot of emotions regarding my school life, how people have treated me, and overall disappointment in the people that surrounded me through most of my life. I wanted to create something subtle but with a hidden darker tone for the overall message. The bright usage of colours with the surreal rabbit head grabbing my head from a magician’s hat with a 99 cent sign that says “pick your joke” felt like the best way to express my emotions at that time.

Who I am now, is someone who wants to strive as a person and as an artist. I don’t think there is a constant nowness of who I am. I am constantly changing, evolving and experiencing everything all at once both as a person and as an artist. I want to find that spark of inspiration again and again and continue working on what I expect from my art. I want to be able to keep these thoughts alive for many years, and continue to use my inspirations and interests in my work. I want to feel like myself when I make my art, rather than become someone else when creating something. I want to feel seen as myself as an artist. I don’t want my fate as an artist to be death by becoming someone that I am not. Who I am as a person and as an artist, is someone who wants to be myself when creating art and to not lose my inspiration sparks or my imagination. Because I don’t think I could ever live without my constant sparks of inspiration or without my imagination.

Abby

The McStranger Things EndTag is my most recently created project. It is a digital motion graphic animation of two different logos clashing together to create an imaginary collaboration of the two brands. The two “brands” I chose were the Netflix original “Stranger Things” and fast-food chain “McDonald’s,” and how I made it is much simpler than the other two works. I simply thought of a random idea in my head while mainly thinking of the show and how to incorporate it with another logo. I decided to have McDonald’s as the other logo because I felt it would be the most realistic choice, and photoshopped, drew and animated everything into a video. I used a similar darker colour scheme and tone, and added a noise effect as well as sound to create an eerie effect to the video.

I wanted to show off my work and create quirky or recognisable themes rather than create what I truly wanted. But over time, my expectations in my art changed,and I became an artist that creates art that feels more authentic and close to what I truly wish to make.Whether it be bringing my interests into my art, to incorporating memes and pop-culture or involving my spiritual practises, it brought more than just impressive points. It created confusion, discussions and long stares at my work.

Abby

Makeup is something that I am also interested in. Within the last couple years, I grew a collection of different makeup products to create a wide variety of makeup looks. Like the look above, Jim Hopper, I used different shades of brown and a white liquid eyeliner to create the mustache. I also used store-bought stage blood for the cut by my eyebrow and the cut on my lip. And to also make myself look a little older, I added lighter eyeshadow shades below my eyes to create the illusion of slightly sagging or hollowed skin. All of this information and creativity in my makeup looks wouldn’t have been here without my years of being passionate in art.

After studying for so long and had gone through changes in my art style and expectations with my work, I have found something new that I can input some of that passion and experience in. Doing makeup looks like this has given me a new sense of creative freedom and expression that I hadn’t felt in a while. And I think that’s a really good thing.