Drew Etienne
Drew Etienne
I am currently an MFA candidate in Painting and Drawing at the University of Iowa with a secondary concentration in Printmaking. I received my BFA in Painting and Drawing from Indiana University where I also earned the Harry Engel Painting Scholarship and the Drawing and Painting Area Award. In 2014 I was a recipient of the Indiana Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Grant. Recently I have been honored with an artist residency at the Mokuhanga Innovation Lab in Fujikawaguchiko, Japan, as well as the Stanley Award for International Research, Graduate College Research Grant, and Mildred Pelzer Fellowship from the University of Iowa.
If we as humans are to survive ourselves and our many possible extinction scenarios, we need to adopt a wider lense. We have learned so much in the past century about our place in the universe and the fact that we exist as part of a planetary ecosystem - not outside of one. We have discovered urgent terrestrial phenomena by extending our attention beyond our immediate environment and studying extraterrestrial planetary systems. The purpose of my art is to push people to take on a similarly macroscopic view and consider how much power we have to change our environment for worse or for better and how integral that is to our survival. I use various media as well as former waste materials to create work that embodies a sense of foreboding from the mistakes of our past to the possible futures that loom over us.