We were lucky to catch up with Grace Flott recently and have shared our conversation below.

Grace, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is called New Icons. It is a project I began with the intention of finding my own visual history as a person with a non-normative body. Upon realizing that my image did not exist outside of medical textbooks, horror movies or sensational news media, I created this project to celebrate what it actually means to “look different.” New Icons uplifts the variable faces and bodies of my burn injury community. With painted realist portraits, interviews, direct body printmaking and expressive paintings inspired by scar patterns, I took an auto-ethnographic approach and focused my documentation on our lived experiences.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a multi-disciplinary visual artist fascinated by the myth of normalcy and social constructions of health, beauty, and gender. My practice is rooted in figure and portrait painting but also incorporates printmaking, installation, and public art. At the core of what I do – whether as a teaching artist, client commissions, or in my studio – I am driven by the notion of body liberation, that is, I endeavor to make work that creates belonging, safety and joy for all bodies. As a young adult, I experienced a major identity disruption from an injury that placed my body firmly outside of mainstream media representation. I decided to enter the art world and learn to make the images I wanted to see. I now remix my training in Classical Oil Painting and Drawing, anatomy, and sculpture with contemporary narratives of body politics.

I am proud to be a 2024 Neddy Award Finalist with Cornish College of the Arts and recipient of the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Hope Corps Grant. My work was awarded First Place in Artistic Excellence by Southwest Art Magazine. I have exhibited in solo and juried group exhibitions internationally including with Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Winslow, WA; Figure|Ground Gallery, Seattle; Museum of Modern European Art (MEAM), Barcelona; and Salmagundi Club, New York City. My work has been published in Fine Art Connoisseur, Realism Today and is collected internationally. I am a graduate of the University of Washington and the Juliette Aristides Classical Atelier. I live and work in Seattle, WA.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is when I see my work change someone’s perspective, either because they strongly identify with the narrative and feel seen by it or because it is challenging a narrative they already have. A conversation starts and connection blossoms.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had known how helpful business, marketing, and operations support would be. When I decided to be a full-time artist I did not understand how to organize and run a small-business but now that I have mentors, sought out classes, and done my research I have systems in place that help me to prioritize what is important: making art.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.graceathenaflott.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graceathenaart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grace.flott
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graceathenaart/

Image Credits

Bellevue Fine Art Reproduction
Amber Fouts