Emerging artist: Jayme Aumann

Age: 35

Born: Edmonds, Wash.; currently living in Spokane.

Education: Near completion of Associate of Fine Arts, Spokane Falls Community College.

Day job: Nanny.

Describe your art: Installation, sculpture, collage and screen printing.

“I enjoy working on a large scale,” Aumann says. For example, each of the three mixed media pieces in her exhibit “Nests” is 3 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet.

Influences: German sculptor Joseph Beuys, French sculptor Louise Bourgeois, installation artist Amy Stacey Curtis, Fluxus Movement, conceptual artist Jenny Holzer and abstract figurative painter Mel McCuddin of Spokane.

Talk a little about your art: “To make people free is the aim of art, therefore art for me is the science of freedom.” – Joseph Beuys.

“The deaths of my son, my mother and my marriage have driven me to explore the themes of loss, pain and strength,” Aumann says.

“Nests” is an installation piece that “magnifies the nest both literally and metaphorically,” Aumann says.

“The branches symbolize home, nurturing and security,” she says. “The barbed wire is intertwined within the branches to represent the traumatic loss of the dream of love and safety within each of those relationships.

“Art has allowed me to expose my vulnerabilities and gain wisdom through the process of making my pieces and in the moments when someone shares their own personal experiences with me as a result of seeing my work.

“Death is a common human experience, the only question is whether or not you let pain defeat you. Art is freedom for me,” Aumann says.

Where we can see your work locally: Far West Billiards, First Avenue at Monroe Street, during July.

E-mail: jaymeaumann@hotmail.com