Ophelia M. Chambliss

February 2018
​Artists Statement
http://www.storytellersproject.com/york/events/-iloveyorkcity-2018-02-06/ophelia-chambliss/
            My growth as an artist can be seen in the evolution of my process, color palette, and mediums. My work has grown, evolved, advanced, and sometimes, withdrawn, while staying centered around the human condition, and expression from society around me.
      Today, I see my work as being on a more purposeful mission. I paint concepts and ideas rather than things. I paint what I call a “visual rhetoric”, which addresses “the concerns of what can be” through rhetorical concepts as visual images.   I feel that art is powerful, art inspires. Art is a means of Persuasion, Translation, and Education.
      As a public artist and muralist, I pride myself in working with different stake holders with a common goal to build community round art. I work to make collaboration, ownership and a belief in the process and production part of the final piece of art. I currently have approximately 25 pieces of art located in public spaces in York, Adams, Lancaster, and Dauphin Counties in Pennsylvania. 

BIOGRAPHY
​Ophelia is originally from Chicago, IL but currently resides in York, Pennsylvania. Prior to
her career in Fine Art, Ophelia was a business professional in the Publishing Industry, specializing in Graphic Design, and Business Development. She worked for a number of educational publishing companies in Chicago and specialized in the pedagogy behind how people learned through visual graphics, texts and images.
     Ophelia M. Chambliss has been successfully working and exhibiting as a fine artist, and lecturer, for many years. She holds a Bachelors in Communication Arts and Sciences, and a Masters in Communications from Penn State University. She combines her visual communication with verbal and written communication to tell the story behind her work, in lectures and presentations that build an appreciation for cultural understanding. She received the Alumni of the Year Award in March of 2015, and the Alumni Achievement Award in November of 2015.
     She is currently an adjunct instructor at Penn State University, Harrisburg. She teaches Communication in the areas of Media Discourse Analysis, Visual Rhetoric, Photography, Media and Society, Communication Theory and Visual Communication.
     Additionally, Ophelia is a Commissioner with the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission. This appointment aligns with her interests in combining her visual art, and the concern for representation in the public space, with her academic background in visual communication, and semiotics.
 

"I am very proud to be a professional artist who works with passion and purpose to their work. "  —Ophelia M. Chambliss