Perspectives: Amy Guidry

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Intensely concerned with the toll human activity is taking on the environment, Lafayette artist Amy Guidry creates extraordinarily detailed surrealist paintings that first lure her viewers in with beauty, then require them to contemplate difficult things. “I’m a polite activist,” she explained. “I’ve always been the type to send a letter to a congressperson, but through my painting, I can take an issue that maybe you wouldn’t want to talk about and present it through a beautiful image. I feel like art can help convey difficult concepts. We’re visual creatures, and this is my way of making people walk up for a closer look.”

A full-time painter since 2004, Guidry explores her concerns surrounding the environment and animal welfare, painting in a surrealist style influenced by the work of Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, and René Magritte. Surrealism enables Guidry to illustrate connections and outcomes in ways that blur the line between real and imagined—between our interactions with the world around us and our psychological inner narratives. “There’re so many issues that involve ecology and nature,” she noted. “I felt I needed my work to revolve around that. Surrealism lets me paint in a way that kind of predicts the future and encourages people to think about their actions and the repercussions of those actions.”

In her New Realm series, a modernist version of a fairy tale, Guidry considers issues of strength of character and independence by challenging antiquated views of women as they’re often presented in fairy tales. She herself appears as the central character in the series, explaining with a laugh, “I’m playing the role out of convenience. I’m always available!” While she wanted the series to revolve around a single character, she insists that these paintings are not self-portraits. New Realm is about women in general being independent and empowered. It’s saying that they don’t need a prince to come save them. It’s about everyone and if [viewers] want to see themselves through me, then so be it.”

Amy Guidry is represented by LeMieux Galleries in New Orleans. Pieces from her “New Realm” series are featured in a group show of self-portraiture entitled “Face to Face”—which remains on view at LeMieux through July 29. She exhibits regularly at Lafayette’s Gallery 549 and will be part of an online exhibit presented by the influential pop surrealism blog wowxwow.com this September. AmyGuidry.com.