I have rendered the characters and their surroundings with simple contour lines similar to
that of storybook illustrations. Visually the work reflects the fact that so many of these
stories were related to me throughout my life; they are an oral storybook. The characters,
objects, or scenery are often cut and taped into place, allowing the possibility for them to
be moved within or removed from the scene (much like how the mind can shuffle and
collage various disparate elements of memories to determine meaning). The newsprint
paper on which some of the images are drawn changes hue over time as it is exposed to
light and air (again, referencing the way the mind shifts or colors memories over time).
The central characters, setting, and significant objects of each story are numbered within
every drawing. In the accompanying book each number is defined or described and can
be read as the viewer traverses the body of work.

Multiple narratives exist within one piece, layered upon one another. By combining these
sometimes-disparate vignettes, a new, more complex narrative is created. By including a
broad circle of characters in the series, the historical timeline in which the actions took
place beings to collapse (for example, in one of the drawings my mother and I
simultaneously exist as little girls.)

There is a literal quality to the work that captures and augments history in physical terms
where before it didn’t physically exist. I have made my blend of “second-hand
memories” into a physically existing and recorded history.


Whitney Stansell was born in Greenville, SC. Being home schooled, along with her six
siblings, affording her a unique educational environment filled with creativity. Her family
moved frequently during her childhood due to her father’s pastoral duty, making the
bonds between family members that much stronger. Whitney attended the University of
Georgia on a full-athletic academic scholarship and in 2003 she received a BFA in Fiber
Arts from the college. She taught high school Visual Arts for Landmark Academy from
2003-2007. In 2006 she began her studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design in
Atlanta working towards an MFA in painting. In 2007 She had her first solo show at
TEW galleries titled An Iconography of an Imagined History, which is based on the
stories of her mother’s childhood. In the fall of 2008 Stansell will exhibit her thesis show
A First Date, A Funeral, and Moments in Between, at Stokes Gallery. Stansell is an
adjunct professor at the Art Institute of Atlanta and currently resides in Historic College
Park with her husband and filmmaker, Micah Stansell.