In a quiet shop tucked along our small-town streets, beauty takes shape in a truly unique way. Natalie Armstrong—a wife, mother and full-time artist— spends her days making artwork that celebrates women. Armstrong is a mixed-media collage artist who uses vintage ephemera, textiles and digital elements to build artwork that explores the richness of different worlds.
Stepping into her gallery, the first thing viewers notice are the colors that jump off each canvas and at a closer glance, each piece reveals careful details that add depth to her message. Walking through, the visitor is awestruck by the intimacy because it’s almost as if Armstrong took her heart and smeared it on every canvas.
“I could feel her passion through her work, like her voice was clawing at my ears,” ULM student Alyssa Hodges said after visiting Armstrong’s gallery. “Appreciation for freedom; that’s what feeling swelled within me seeing a woman create something that powerful and beautiful.”
The composition that stood out the most was “Royal Alligators,” where there stands a woman with an umbrella standing on a tightrope above alligators in a swamp setting, boarded with a black ruffled lace and a pink feather accent. The colors in this piece make you feel like you are in the old south with the classic bayou scene along with her dress and hat seeming vintage. The texture of the work is very prominent. It seemed as if each whole object is independent of its setting, such as some of the tree trunks, alligators and the woman herself. Besides the obvious movement in the flow of water, you can see that everything is being drawn to her.
In the center is an alligator lunging upward towards the woman and on either side are cranes facing one another. This almost gives a sense of purity to the composition, along with the pink feather on the frame, being so calculated towards making the scene feel more feminine. With a small sign in the background that states “Do Not Feed the Alligators,” this concept feeds into the idea of feminism that she is almost walking a tightrope over the predators in her life in a graceful manner.
On the flip side, it shows how women are taking risks and not feeding into what is normalized in culture today. The roots and branches of the cypress trees were also very prominent in this composition, suggesting shallow water and making it easier to visualize the countless other alligators lurking in the foreground that symbolize hidden danger. It also illuminates how exposed and vulnerable the woman is in this moment, being a complete anomaly in this setting along with the white cranes.
Dark feminism is also portrayed extremely well in this piece, being untamable and powerful no matter where your path may lead.
In “Royal Alligators” by Natalie Armstrong, she does an excellent job at showcasing the diversity of feminism, allowing the viewer to walk away with more than just one perspective. Specifically, her heavy use of textures and movement in this piece completely transforms the canvas into something deeply personal. Along with her many other pieces in this collection such as “Sundays on the Bayou,” Armstrong has a gift worth sharing with the world.
