Hadiya Finley
www.barefootbird.com
hadia99@verizon.net

The place in me that was formed long ago by impressions made in a world that was marked by the screams and strange behavior of a schizophrenic brother is the place where my art is born. At any moment a peaceful family dinner could be interrupted by an unexplained fit in which the dining table could be overturned and the meal sent flying in all directions.
I could escape from this to my own room where I made things. I could turn discarded materials, like the old cardboard, , telephone wire, pipe cleaners and fabric scraps, broken and discarded things, into magical objects. The process of making took me away from what frightened me and what I could not understand. The objects brought me praise and pleasure. The objects most often represented humans as dolls and figures with houses and castles in which they would live.
From this beginning my art has developed into representation of the human form, exaggerated, broken, mended, embedded inside other forms, or filled with things such as butterflies, in a variety of materials; wood, clay and fiberglass. This to conjure fragility, but strength as well, inertia and fear as well as joy and movement.

I received my BA in Humanities/Fine Art from the State University of New York at Binghamton, my MFA from Claremont Graduate University in California. I have also studied with many artists and have participated in a residency program in Xiamen, China. I work for a studio potter in Topanga, California.
I have had exhibitions at the 18th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica, CA, The Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA, Gallery 825, and the Brand Library in Glendale, CA.

Website: Hadiya Finley Multimedia Art
Contact email: hadia99@verizon.net