Sophie Beth Craven
Her Hands, My Home: Reclaiming Art in the Domestic Sphere
As an artist who is a printmaker, painter, and photographer, my work takes on the themes and subjects of childhood awakenings, domesticity, and the relationships between mother and daughter and its connection to craft. By combining subjects of activist work with themes of the mundane everyday life, I am using art as a conduit to express internal personal and outward political beliefs. This has influenced me creatively to make artwork reflecting on my past experiences and how it has shaped my practice, my process, and the inner child I will continue to carry on my sleeve. My thesis work is an intersection between fine-art and craft. Merging processes, materials and presenting the two disconnected art forms on the same plane, I am allowing them to exist without hierarchy. The books titled 341, old walpole rd. & 54 Jaffery rd. are representative of this technical, fine art practice. The intertwined, playfully sewn worms are indicative of craft culture and my connection to the women who continue to influence me. My thesis work is not only an ode to my mother and Nana, but to the many other women who have convinced themselves that their work isn’t anything more than a hobby.Bio
Sophie Craven currently attends Maine College of Art and Design, earning a Bachelors in Fine Arts with a focus in Printmaking, pending May 2025. Craven currently lives and works in Portland, Maine. As an artist, printmaker, painter and photographer–Craven’s work takes on the themes and subjects of nostalgia, childhood curiosity, and folklore. Their interests combine themes of activist work and using art as a conduit of expressing internal personal and outward political beliefs. Craven’s work aims to connect with an audience through community engagement while promoting an acceptance of people’s notions of comfort and discomfort.