Meet Micah and Whitney Stansell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Micah and Whitney Stansell.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Micah and I moved to College Park fresh out of Undergraduate Art Programs and full of lofty goals of making some great art. We were lucky (and crazy enough) to buy this little pistachio green 1920’s Salt Box in Historic College Park. We found ourselves surrounded by memories and history through little objects left behind by the previous owner (who grew up in the home as a child, and whose parents built the home). We also found that all of our neighbors, most in their 80’s and 90’s, loved to share stories about their childhoods, the neighborhood, and the things that have changed or stayed the same. Southerners love to tell stories, and while attending Graduate School at SCAD and GSU respectively, we found ourselves making work that was about our families’ personal histories, memory, and how place and environment can affect the recounting.

Please tell us about your art.
Our work is experiential and immersive – inviting the viewer to place themselves within the work and participate in discovering its meaning. We’re interested in how the history or experience of a place can be told visually. Our interest in the rich Southern tradition of storytelling and the way stories and histories must be pieced together and solidified in the hearer’s mind, and retold/passed along informs our approach to creating. While this tradition centers around oral or written stories, the narratives are often imagistic, so we have adapted this tradition into a visual form and applied it to making experiential, interactive work. Our work is deliberately open, leaving space for viewers to bring their own context to it, and inviting them to participate as creators.

As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
Of course, there are a lot of different measures of success. For us, the answer to this is constantly changing. We believe that an artist is successful when they are supported by patrons, institutions, and organizations that want to see artists making work and having an impact in their community. Making art and expecting to be supported by ones work comes with so many challenges. There is a tenacity and commitment to one’s work that is vital to the success of an artist.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
We are currently working on a project that will be a part of a permanent exhibition at 725 Ponce. The new development will host a large-scale outdoor projection space facing the beltline. We are helping to develop the infrastructure for the projection and are making a new work that is slated to be the inaugural piece in what will eventually be a rotation of moving image artworks. Opening in October at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, The Book as Art: Flight Edition, a sculptural book based on our hometown of College Park can be found in the Domestic Terminal Concourse E. Our photographs, and works on paper can be found at WhiteSpace Gallery and online at ArtSpace. We are represented by WhiteSpace Gallery and will have a show there in the Spring of 2020.

Contact Info:

• Address: College Park, Georgia
• Website: whitneyandmicah.com
• Instagram: @whitneystansell, @micahstansell

Image Credit:
Courtesy of the artist.

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.