SYDNEY DETTMAR

ARTIST BIO:

Sydney Dettmar is a mixed-media collage artist who draws inspiration and source material from her extensive collection of vintage magazines. She holds a BFA in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design and has lived and worked in Austin, Texas for the past decade. Since 2020, she has been creating Little Thoughts, an ongoing series of small-scale collages made with text and imagery sourced from 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s teen magazines. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. Sydney has been a member of the Bolm Arts Collective since 2022.

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ARTIST STATEMENT:

I believe that in both art and life, the most interesting moments happen where distinctly separate elements meet each other. In my artwork, I am drawn to the tension between transparency and opacity, and to the ways color, texture, images, and text can combine in sharp or subtle ways to tell a story.

Working primarily in mixed-media collage, I build layered compositions using tissue paper, acrylic ink washes, visible wood grain, flower petals, and areas of bold opaque color. These materials are combined with images and text sourced from vintage ephemera to create carefully considered “little thoughts.” I intend each piece to function as a small, self-contained narrative, inviting close looking and reflection.

Collage allows me to merge my art practice with my lifelong fascination with history, particularly the lived experiences of everyday women. I collect (and primarily source my collage material from) teen magazines from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. I view them as incredible time capsules of societal messaging directed at girls and young women. By re-contextualizing this found material, I explore how cultural expectations are constructed and passed down, highlighting the ways American culture has changed, and the all too many ways it has remained strikingly the same.

My work often explores themes of girlhood trauma, family dynamics, sexuality, gender expectations, and societal hypocrisy. Sometimes humorous, sometimes cutting, and often deeply personal, my work examines the persistence of familiar narratives, revealing how echoes of the past continue to shape modern experience.

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