Lucy Bulley

My work is about the end of the world, which I conceive of as both the termination of my internal adolescent world as well as the apocalypse at the end of the external world. In 2022, I was seventeen, entering a brand-new chapter at the University of Virginia. This year, I’m navigating an intense rebirth through my newfound love for oil paint. I've always thought of myself as an art historian rather than an actual artist.

When my parents first dropped me off at school, R.E.M’s Its The End of The World played on the radio as our car pulled up the main road. It’s a moment that I’ll never forget and keep coming back to in my work. 

That's great, it starts with an earthquake
Birds and snakes, and aeroplanes
And Lenny Bruce is not afraid
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn
World serves its own needs
Don't mis-serve your own needs
Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no, strength
The ladder starts to clatter
With a fear of height, down, height

I came across a Reddit page where someone described these lyrics as a “chaotic machine gun of imagery.” This visual really speaks to the overwhelming melange of ideas, themes, images and styles that I feel characterize my work. My collage sensibilities lay the groundwork for my meditations in oil paint.

My paintings are a flirtation with the digital realm, speaking to the incredible overwhelm of visual information that comes about through the media we consume. Our digital access has completely transformed the way that we think and see the world, and my work explores that. 

The end of the external world feels incredibly palpable these days, too. The realms I conjure up in paint are designed to reflect the modern hellscape that we live in, closely in conversation with Francis Bacon and Ambera Wellman’s macabre landscapes.