Inspired by mourning research, Connie’s work is a visceral response to emotions, body sensations, and experiences in nature. She works across media, installation, sculpture, video, performance, and sound to contextualize imaginings of unknown spaces before life and after death that bookend the transitions into and out of consciousness. In a meditative process that allows the world’s noise to dissipate, she looks for answers to difficult questions, focusing on the work’s essential qualities in the moment. The isolated and spare visual results create an intimate and immediate connection to the work and serve as a reminder that this moment is all there is.
She is using her time at NES to begin research on a new body of work. Through the lens of her grief research, she will look at the loss of ocean ecosystems and water’s relationship to human and non-human bodies. Her profound connection to the Pacific Coast of Northern California is the impetus for this new work, as kelp forests continue to die due to the imbalance of the ecosystem from ocean warming.
Born in Washington, DC, Connie received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and attended Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, where she received an MA in psychology. To support her current research, she was awarded the Cabins Haystack Residency Fellowship in Norfolk, CT, received two Artist Grants from the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs, trained as a death doula, and studied Butoh. You can see more of Connie’s work at https://www.connienoyes.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/connienoyes/
