Lily Summers

About the Artist

My art focuses on themes of death, remembrance and gore. I like pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable to show as art. Making people stop and think about what they are looking at. Inspiration comes to me when I’m emotional leading to heavy emotionally charged paintings. Using whatever means of painting I can whether that’s with a paintbrush, or even my own hand. Finger painting helps me use art as a form of therapy to express about how I’m feeling without actually talking about it. It’s a form of painting that involves quick, messy motions that can capture very strong emotions. Some of my finger paintings have been my most successful however, I don’t make them often. I tend to mostly focus on traditional styles of painting, painting with a paintbrush, in order to make highly detailed works. For example, I did a painting of Ego Death looking into Jungian philosophy about the idea of self and being. This painting featured a skull with a bloody hand holding it. It was emotionally charged and detailed. Bringing together all of the elements I like to include in my artwork.

My art is now being channeled into focusing on tattoo artwork. Painting in the style I draw tattoos in, or doing paintings of tattoos to show off how they can be beautiful. Painting in bold colors with thick lines to really imitate the style of Neo-Traditional tattoos. Tattoos have been an inspiration to my artwork since I was very young. I hope to continue to work on my skills as a painter to create a body of work that really shows who I am and what I’ve been through.

Steven Burns: Alright, so I’ll start off. So Lily, what got you started as an artist? Was it instinctual? Or maybe you’re inspired by something or someone specifically?

Oh, I mean, maybe it was instinctual. But I definitely started getting interested in drawing around sixth grade. You know, like those how to draw books, and especially like, anime and stuff, I was like, super into that. So I was trying to, like, recreate the characters, and then I did that for a couple years. And then that kind of naturally flowed into, I don’t know, drawing more realistic stuff and trying to draw people that I looked up to.

Andrew Watson: Cool.

SB: Headed off to you, Andrew. AW: Were the artists designers that inspired you or influenced you?

Hope, Shepard Fairey

I definitely mentioned Shepard Fairey in the presentation. My family’s really into him. He’s all over the house. And I know my stepdad has a bunch of posters of his work in the basement. But yeah, I like how he uses influential people or like, people that relate to the subject matter. Also, I like a lot of Instagram artists. I don’t know I get really inspired just like scrolling through my feed because I follow a lot of people who post their art. I guess. The question asked musically, too, so I guess I could say, someone that I really look up to be Joji I don’t know his music speaks to my soul on another level.

AW: It’s all good.

SB: You say that Joji is your hero.

Maybe, you know, late night drives listening to Joji just spoke to my soul on another level. So maybe.

SB: Do you have any other inspirational like heroes you have? It doesn’t have to be musically either. It could be any Instagram artists that you’re very inspired by?

It depends because sometimes it’ll I’ll just like find random people on the Explore page, but there’s this one dude. I think it’s like Llewellyn. But he does these really incredible drawings and paintings and every time I see him, I’m like, Damn, that’s the goal. Right? They’re like, they’re just like insanely

detailed. And I don’t know how he does it. But he also does a lot of stuff with skulls and I’m always drawing skulls and something maybe a little gory.

AW: You said you’re into tattooing and starting to like, learn it real well is that where you want to be eventually, or...?

That also started around sixth grade I was in between like wanting to be a fashion designer and a tattoo artist and I came back to wanting to be a tattoo artist. If I’m drawing just for fun, I’ll try to draw in like that style. Or I’ve been like trying to practice on oranges. And then recently, I got an apprenticeship at a shop that my friend owns. So I will hope that I’ll be tattooing people soon.

AW: What shop?

It’s called a AVK and it’s over North Tonawanda.

AW: That’s good. Do you any specific style tattooing that you want to go towards? Are you kind of just still learning all of them? Or looking at them all? I should say.

I mean, it would be cool to be like, able to do all of them. But I know that’s kind of, you know, there’s always going to be one style that you’re better at than others. There’s a style called Neo traditional, which is like, new traditional. It’s got a lot more colors and fine lines compared to traditional tattoos. And that’s kind of how I do my work right now I’d say or realism, but I feel like that’s like really hard. And I’m definitely not there yet.

@llewellyn on Instagram

SB: Do you have any important or influential forums, like figures, events, our work experiences that really influence right?

That’s a good question. I don’t know I kind of have like bursts of inspiration. So it depends on, really my mood, what I’m painting if I get upset, I’ll finger paint something. And that’s just, I don’t know, a way of stress relief. And when the whole Black Lives Matter thing happened with George Floyd that, really impacted everybody. And that was definitely a good time for, artistic inspiration. And I saw a whole bunch of people getting inspired and trying to pass the message along. So I did something about, kind of around that and kind of around like ACAB. So I don’t know, that would definitely be one of the times that influenced my art.

Ego Death, 2020, acrylic on canvas

SB: With works like that do you think it’s more...Like your work is more conceptual based? Or is it kind of like current events? Or what would you say? Your, your most related to?

I guess, most of my artwork right now has been based off of prompts for school. Like, you know, you have to do a bunch of artwork for school and then once are finally off school, it’s a breather, and I don’t want to make any more art. I don’t know I get burnt out from school.

SB: Yeah, I can definitely relate to that. It’s, they try to I’m more of like a guided person when it comes to like instruction so it’s a lot easier for me, but I’m sure like having the artistic liberty of doing whatever you want can be liberating at the same time.

I definitely enjoy having the prompts, especially for school because if they want me to make like five pieces I’m like, of what? You know. But I guess if I’m painting on my own time, I tend to gravitate towards a theme of like death or something spooky I guess, it’s got to have blood or something on it. So I don’t know. I don’t know why. I just have a weird fascination with like, skulls. Death is kind of scary to me too. So maybe that’s a way of dealing with that.

SB: Yeah, I used to also deal with concepts like that, like I have a skull drawing back there somewhere. I don’t know if you can see it. Back there. Yeah. More. More of my studio stuff. I used to be interested in like life and death concepts and stuff like that. But I can relate to that, for sure.

I did a whole series on Momento mori. But yeah, definitely just like a whole bunch of things that have symbols of life or death and stuff.

SB: What’s your like work habit and work environment like

I’m at my house, I’ve got like a small little desk in there. And it’s piled with paintings like shoved underneath it or in the side. So I definitely do most of my work there. I have a whole bunch of paintings in the trunk of my car, because I just don’t have the room for them in my house. But I don’t know, I try to at least put an hour of work into my art a day. Sometimes I don’t get that. But I also really like to work in series. And then sometimes I fall off of that

series and don’t want to keep working on it. But maybe one day, I will finish a series fully, because I have a couple of them that are started right now that I haven’t finished. Yeah, I tend to lose my inspirations a lot. And then I’d like jump into another painting. So I’ve got a bunch of unfinished paintings. But sometimes I’ll really click with them, and then I’ll finish it. And those tend to be pretty okay, when they’re done.

SB: Do you feel like more comfortable working at home or like in a studio space, like at school, like what feels more comfortable in terms of like, your creation, your work environment?

I kind of feel like I’m more creative at my house. But I’m definitely less productive at my house. Like I was talking about how we are doing zoom classes online and art over zoom is kind of really difficult. When you’re at Campus, you have to be in the classroom working for three hours. So you get three hours of work done at a time you’re on zoom, you’re like, yeah, I’m working. But I don’t know. It’s definitely harder to stay focused when I’m in my room.

SB: Yeah, there’s definitely a lot more distractions at home. I agree.

AW: When you’re working on your works, do you have like music on the background podcasts? Anything like that?

It’s Yeah, definitely there like music, YouTube or twitch stream or something. I definitely like having, the voice of somebody talking even if I’m not really like listening to what they’re saying. I usually gravitate more towards music, but YouTube’s in there sometimes too.

SB: So, um, I mean, you have a lot of like, diverse. Like, sort of works like how would you describe your work? If you like, had to contextualize it, how would you describe it?

Overall? I don’t know. There’s like elements of pop art because sometimes I’ll just paint my backgrounds one color. And I know George the painting Professor definitely said that has elements of pop art to it. But maybe, like, taking things that you could potentially see in an older painting and making them more contemporary, more modern. And, it’s got to have that, edge to it with Gore, maybe not necessarily gore all the time. But like, edgier content.

ACAB, 2020, acrylic on canvas

Untitled, 2020, acrylic on canvas

Untitled, 2020, acrylic on canvas

SB: How are you drawn to that sort of subject matter with sort of like the spooky, maybe not supernatural? But like, sort of that, like, gore element or something? What kind of like got you into that? Was it like, maybe horror movies? Or is there anything that got you actually that sort of stuff?

I don’t actually like horror movies. I’m a big chicken when it comes to horror movies. I’ve always felt like, I don’t know, the gore always draws people in at least for a second, even if they’re like a Oh, that’s gross. And they walk away, like it got their attention. There’s this one painting. That’s really dope. It’s I think it’s called Judith Beheading Holofernes. She’s like, cutting his head off. It’s like an old painting. But that’s pretty dope. And it’s like, really gory. And I don’t know. Maybe that’s what inspired it during like art history or something. Got that gory moment going.

SB: So if you say you’re into, like, the shock factor of art, in a way.

Yeah, I mean shock will always get people to look and then if you have a deeper meaning behind the shock,

Judith Beheading Holofernes, Artemisia Gentileschi

maybe it’ll get them to think about it, you know? There’s this one painting I did with the skull and hand it’s got like blood on it. But it’s not a lot of blood. So you’d have to like look at it for a second to realize it’s goal was to talk about ego death. Yeah, I definitely like having that like gore to help get people to think.

SB: Do you focus on like stuff from the past? Maybe the present, like, whatever is going on in through your life, like, in present times? Or, you know, maybe future concerns or something?

Present I would say? Probably, I’ve probably focus mostly on the present, like, my art stuff really is influenced a lot by how I’m feeling so it’s definitely like a

spur of the moment, like, hey, let’s make this right now kind of thing. I mean, sometimes maybe, I guess thinking about the future.

SB: Do you have a key demographic that you’re trying To reach like a certain age group, certain person? And if so how do you try to reach them?

I would say that I’d probably I probably go towards like, people our age, maybe a little bit older. But once you get too old, my art gets a little, like, questionable to them. I put my art in the library that I worked for a while, and there were some pieces that I definitely couldn’t put up because they were too questionable for old people. But yeah, I definitely would say people our age, maybe younger, too, cuz I know that shock factor definitely talks to people that are less sensitive, I guess.

SB: Yeah, I think people in our demographic are definitely more attracted to like, more like, a graphic sorts of like, work. And obviously, like, an older demographic wouldn’t really be interested in that. There’s been a bunch of artists that, uh, that my parents just don’t understand. Because it’s like contemporary art. And they just don’t want to go to museums because of it, because they think it’s all BS, but.

Yeah, it’d be sick. If I met an old person. I was like, Damn, I like that Gore, you know? Just different ways we’re raised.

SB: Yeah. And the views from being raised for sure. Right. So what’s like your ideal like studio workspace that you’d like to work in, the future, like, if you can have anything, within your means?

I’ve never really thought about it. But, I guess like, just a studio space. In general, it wouldn’t even have to be like really big. There’s this one person on Instagram. And I can’t remember what her handle is right now. But she had this like really cool studio space. And it was like a small room. But her paintings were hung up on the wall so she could work on them on the wall. And she had like a really nice desk. And then like the view, she was like always recording like time lapses. So you could like see the sunset happening. And it’s just like really sick and like, definitely got to have a good view. I always get like, distracted by like, a good view.

SB: Yeah, I’m like having a mindset to reflect the area you work in is like a good mindset. So you definitely want to be somewhere, like creative.

Definitely, maybe not working at my house for the rest of my life.

AW: Yeah, I can totally relate to that.

Or just like, if we’re talking like, art in general. Like if I’m doing tattooing, like, just working in like a professional, clean environment. You know, some tattoo shops are like not always the best environment to get a tattoo. So I want to have like a welcoming place for people to come.

AW: Are you working on anything right now?

I am in painting with George. So he’s having to do a series on whatever we want. So I was like, I guess I’ll do a series on tattoos because I really don’t want to do the depressed gory thing that I was doing last semester, even though that is what I like to do. I was like, maybe I need to change for a second. So I was like, I’ll do tattoos. So I’m doing a series of like really zoomed in pieces of the body. So like maybe you can’t exactly tell what it is. And I’m putting like tattoos that have been like, have no I guess classics in the tattoo world that people like always go to and get because of the meaning and stuff behind them, so like the one I just did has a bunch of flowers on the shoulder, cuz people always get flower tattoos and flowers have a million meanings behind them. So that’s like the big project I’m working on. I’m hoping to do like, maybe five of them. Outside of school stuff. I’ve just been working on a bunch of flat sheets for my apprenticeship. So that’s taking up a lot of my time.

Twisted Reality, 2020-2021 Acrylic on Cardboard

Thesis Statement

Traditional paintings, and the old masters, always seem to be confined to the rectangular shape of a canvas. It’s not often that painters explore the world outside of the traditional canvas. When they do leave the confines of the rectangle, it becomes a piece of art that can be seen as both a sculpture and a painting. With this project I will explore the world of shaped canvases. By doing this, the art becomes a physical object. They have a much stronger presence when they are cut to shape and it makes it more visually appealing to look at. I also include a heavy outline around my shapes in order to give it a really graphic quality. It almost has a stickerlike appearance to it. Breaking out of the box is very important to my art’s expression; it allows it to go in any direction and change over time. My pieces also give an ode to tattoo style art, or even art you’d see on skateboards or stickers that are slapped on stop signs. I like to include symbols such as women, bunnies, floral life, and skulls. Rabbits have accidentally become a big symbol in my life and now I am really using them to create a brand for myself. I was born in the year of the rabbit and my best friend as a child was a stuffed rabbit that my mother gave me. I think it’s important to include symbols that refer back to the artist without it directly talking about the artist.