It took a long time to get ready to exist. exit. Painting

My work inspired by mourning research is a visceral response to emotions, body sensations, and experiences in nature. I work 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, I look for answers to what I don't know, 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. Connie Noyes, born in Washington, DC, received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1981) and her Masters in psychology and art therapy from Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, California (1994). She gained international recognition as a selected artist representing Salwa Zeidan Gallery in the UAE for Art Abu Dhabi (2017) and Art Bahrain (2015). She participated in the TransArt summer program in Berlin, Germany (2018) and selected artist residencies, including Arteles Creative Center, CAMP|FRANCE, ChaNorth, Emaar International Art Symposium, and Thupelo International Workshop. Her work has been exhibited in Paris and Grenoble, France, Innsbruck, Austria, Munich, Germany, Dubai, and Bangi, Malaysia. In the US, recent exhibitions include a collaboration with sound artist Beth Bradfish, "Untied|United" (2018) on Governors Island, New York, "we are built in water" (2022), Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL. and A(mend)ed (2019), Wedge Projects, Chicago, IL. She was recently awarded the Cabins Haystack Residency Fellowship (2022), Norfolk, CT, and received Department of Cultural Affairs Artist Grants from the City of Chicago (2018 and 2019). Noyes' work is in the collections of The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois; The Ekstrom Library of Photographic Archives Special Collections, Louisville, Kentucky; Rhode Island School of Design and the Greenville County Museum, South Carolina. To further her research, she has trained as a death doula and studied Butoh- the dance of darkness. She is a licensed psychotherapist and registered art therapist in Illinois and currently lives and works in Chicago.