Hi! I’m Alexandra Woody, an illustrator and creative thinker based in Portland, Oregon. My art is fantastical, surreal, and sometimes a little creepy. While I currently live in the Pacific Northwest, I was born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia and got a BFA in Communication Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. The Appalachian folklore I grew up with has a strong influence on my worldviews and my art. There’s a spirituality in Appalachia that runs so deep that if you sit out on a porch at night, the air itself feels crowded.
My artistic process is intuitive and synesthetic. Many of my pieces are recreations of mental images I get right when I close my eyes to sleep at night. My poses, compositions, palettes, etc. aren’t always true to life- I’m always trying to figure out what feels right. I’m trying to create images that make a connection to the viewer. It’s like when Janelle Monae was asked about her plethora of piercing gazes into the camera in her film Dirty Computer. She said, “I think that there’s a certain level of… piercing of hope that I want to give to people who I hope feel seen. I was like, I want to come through the screen and say, ‘I see you. You see me. I’m here for you.’ I think that’s what it is. I’m trying to allow my energy to permeate to the audience and whoever is watching… I want you to feel my soul, I want you to feel my truth, I want you to feel my love, I want you to… to feel something.”
So I’m glad you’ve found me! Take a look around, I hope you feel something too!