Vivid color and ‘Fables’ with a twist enliven Grace Netanya’s illustrations

From Disney movies to those Little Golden Books, classic fables and myths have been retold millions of times over the years, but they typically continue to portray women and children as the victims of the story with some handsome white guy coming to their rescue.

From the skillful strokes of the self-taught illustrator and mixed-media artist Grace Netanya (born Grace Netanya Roberts), the outcomes are vastly different. The artist’s bold depictions recast the tales to empower female characters as heroines and mighty victors.

These retooled myths and fairy tales come to us from the perspective of the stories’ children, adults and, yes, even the villains–works are currently showcased in NOMA’s “Fables” exhibition through the end of December,

Grace Netanya uses graphite, marker, and colored pencils to illustrate an alternate realm that incorporates recognizable elements of our own everyday lives. The result is a blend of contemporary and classical elements and ambiguous settings that remind the viewer that fables are universal and timeless.

Most of the 21-year-old artist’s works are realistically rendered portraits, allowing us to imagine these characters as someone we may encounter in our own lives.

“‘Fables’ is a collection of mixed-media drawings that celebrate storytelling through figurative art,” she explains in her artist statement. “Some works are inspired by iconic fables and fairy tales such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood,’ “Hansel and Gretel’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ Other pieces represent original characters that explore universal themes, such as inner beauty.”

As such, “Fables” invites us to take another look at familiar stories and consider that a small child can be powerful, a beautiful woman can save herself and a little girl could defeat a big bad wolf.

Creating compelling works that meld an avant-garde the introspective, the Stetson graduate shares that she taught herself to draw to communicate stories and characters from her imagination.

Before earning her BFA in art history, she was homeschooled and raised in Southeast Ocala. Her family moved a few times, and now she now lives in Port Orange. Grace Netanya’s younger siblings have acting experience and lend their expressiveness to some of the artist’s most striking portraits. Her mom, Alyssa Roberts, now also her manager, nurtured creativity in all of the Roberts children.

“My mother was raised in an artist studio because my grandmother was a professional artist, as well,” the ‘Fables’ artist explained. “So, I was lucky enough to be born into a background that provided access to the arts and an appreciation for art.”

Experimenting with her combinations of marker and pencil shading has lent deep, rich color to Grace Netanya’s work. The blood red tones in her “Little Red Riding Hood” painting, which she recently sold, exquisitely conveys this potent mix.

Putting unique spins on existing styles and finding new ways to push a medium past our conceived limits inform her art with fresh originality. She shared that she prefers to use mixed-media techniques with ink, graphite, colored pencils and acrylics, but she loves to discover new mediums and is constantly expanding her repertoire.

Lately, she has considered experimenting with collage but before that, she plans to make use of colored pencils and Copic markers (her favorite markers) for another series that invokes childhood tropes and investigations of human interactions.

“I’m going to call it “Curio Cabinet,” the illustrator shared. The collection would involve works that anthropomorphize her stuffed animals and collectibles and engage them in activities that range from the banal to extreme, such as having a tea party or going at one another in a battle scene.

“I also collect My Little Ponies. Maybe the ponies would look like they’re having a council meeting or something,” she added with a laugh.

Her unique combination of colorful fantasy and realism has caught the eyes of the art world both at home and internationally. Her work has been featured in The Colored Pencil Society’s 28th Annual International Exhibit, and she won The Copic Award Grand Prize 2019 with “The Explorer,” scoring a complete set of Copic products as well as a substantial cash prize.

She has also recently won a 2020 American Art Award third-place prize for her colored pencil work “The Secret Garden.” The same work won Best of Show in the R.G. Endres Gallery 2020 State of The Arts Exhibit.

Her work has gotten some media buzz too. It’s been displayed in publications such as “Infected by Art,” and at museums such as Museum of Arts and Science in Daytona Beach.

“My core motive for doing art is to tell empowering stories and to intentionally distort narratives,” she said. “I think that’s kind of going to be what I always do to some extent in all of my bodies of work.”

A school-age girl at a recent NOMA gingerbread house-making event told gallery owner Lisa Midgett that she liked how Alice “got the rabbit” in one of the more brutal “Fables” paintings, which depicts Alice with a fiercely numb pose pouring tea from a dainty cup onto the famous watch and butcher knife pinning the rabbit to the table.

How does this receptivity make Grace Netanya feel?

“It means the world, actually,” she responded. “If you can’t communicate your point clearly enough that a child can understand it, then you have failed. … I think it’s the same if you’re a writer or filmmaker. I think sometimes maybe people think that like being complex and vague is intellectually superior. And I think like there’s something to be said for symbolism and layering and all that, but at the end of the day, if you can’t communicate the overall feeling and point of your, your work to a kid, then you haven’t succeeded.”