Audrey Lendvay

Cozy Cumacean

I use an assortment of paint, printmaking, drawing media, and sculptural media as a means to synthesize internal, external, and virtual realms that are informed by the natural world and the social structures that humankind has imposed upon it. Making work that is both playful and contemplative, I explore the ways in which our inherent fluidity and creativity is repressed and repossessed, taking particular interest in human and animal relationships, as well as religious imagery and the endotic. I am based in Jacksonville, Florida, and am currently completing my Bachelor of Fine Arts at Florida State University with a minor in Museum Studies.

Cozy Cumacean, my soft sculpture, is an homage to an unsung ecological power, the planktonic community. Responsible for ⅔ of our planet’s oxygen, these organisms not only form the basis of oceanic life but support life above the waters, too. They help facilitate the world’s carbon cycle and without them countless animal species would starve, irreparably upsetting some of the planet’s largest ecosystems. The scale of my plankton is drastically emphasized and increased to something that might visually suggest its importance, and their pearls are intended to suggest both an item of great value, and to call to mind the oyster beds where various plankton also cohabitate. I overlaid its white shell with delicate pink gauze to call to mind the pinkish translucence possessed by true cumaceans, and incorporated four gold bells as little flourishes in hopes of evoking some quality of mystique and benevolence.