artist statement
Rooted in observation and reflection, I use printmaking, textiles, and painting to embody processes of change. Through carving, pressing, rubbing, peeling, and sometimes submerging, I exercise my own dance with emotion as my spirit is guided along. I watch the trees, wind, and sky shift and bend, observing the push and pull, light and dark, and ebb and flow both around us and within people. I see their emotions, their pain, their joy, their reluctance, and understand my practice as both a reflection and a response to the various states of nature we experience as human beings.
My process cycles through writing, photographing, and drawing as a means of processing and transposing my observations, like a scientist documenting field notes. In the past year and a half, I’ve closely interrogated the edges in tree bark, the specific blue sky of October-November, and meteorological wind maps. When the time comes, my hands take over, moving through the process of removing from or adding to surfaces with the memory of observation stored in my body. As I continue to work through the connection between body, land, and material, I alternate between paper and textile, exploring various textures, thicknesses, movements, and transparencies. Printing on fabric allows the image to move in space, while thicker paper may feel more static. I often control one variable at a time, pushing each print to reveal something different, like frames in a video capturing slightly different moments in time.
My work explores stages of healing, growth, and transformation by engaging processes of relief, repair, and repetition, drawing connections between our bodies and the earth as one living ecosystem. The work asks how we might identify patterns in nature to better understand ourselves and imagine a way forward—toward healing and collective change.
about
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Cheyenne Tobias-Bamson received her BA from Vassar College, where she majored in Africana Studies and Studio Art, and a post-baccalaureate degree in Visual Communications Design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where she is currently pursuing her MFA. She is a Smith Book Award recipient, graduated with departmental honors from Vassar’s Africana Studies Program, and is an SAIC Presidential Scholar.
Cheyenne’s artistic practice is rooted in research into Black Feminist Theory, Afrofuturism, and theology, alongside close observation of color, pattern, and texture. Working across mediums, she approaches art-making as an opportunity for viewers to pause and hold space for reflection and meditation.
Her undergraduate thesis project, …in search of, exhibited at the Vassar–Hackensack Building in May 2018, comprised watercolor paintings, poetry, and oral histories from her mother’s family. The project recounts stories of women in her lineage—both living and deceased—through the voices of their relatives, foregrounding memory and intergenerational healing.
In addition to her individual visual practice, Cheyenne frequently collaborates with artists and entrepreneurs engaged in dialogue with traditions of the African diaspora, including Pook Hustle, Dr. Anderson Smith, and Dozzy Ibekwe.
Cheyenne also has over fifteen years of experience in performance as a singer and producer. While at Vassar, she co-led Ujima, an interdisciplinary performance group specializing in music from the African diaspora, and has produced music events featuring artists such as J.I.D., EarthGang, Linda Diaz, Nic Hanson, and Pook Hustle.
Professionally, Cheyenne has worked at creative agencies across entertainment, fashion, and architecture, including Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Milk Studios, Driven Society, CA Creative, Kaleidoscope Consulting, and Blue Medium.
contact:
cheyennetobiasbamson@gmail.com