* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Originally from Fort Madison, Iowa, Serena is a graduate of Western Illinois University, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting. Following her undergraduate studies she moved to southern California to attend the MFA program at the Laguna College of Art and Design. She currently resides in Albuquerque, NM where she makes art full-time.
She explains her work by saying, “My work represents my interest in re-contextualizing collected found and/or personal images to form narratives reminiscent of life expectations, outcomes, and potential. In some cases, I pull images from contemporary and antiquated sources, including a variety of magazines and books. These images typically show a sense of idealization or a representation of life-styles much more lavish than my own. The marriage of these images with their partner(s)—that seem to almost naturally find each other in my collage-based process—often creates a pleasant illusion of an ultimately unsettling scene. Other times the space, with its clutter, congested-ness and/or impossibility of navigation, scale or even existence becomes an anxiety-provoking story.”