Amy Davis Roth

Amy Davis Roth (also known as Surly Amy) is an female American multimedia artist, who is a fourth-generation visual artist. Currently resides in Hollywood, California (2018).. Roth works as an self-employed business owner, an handmade art business named “Surly Ramics”.  Roth is an activist who works to raise awareness and money for skepticism’s, atheism, and feminism. All of Roth’s artworks and creations are in concern of the raising of awareness within the fields of skepticism’s, atheism, and feminism. Roth’s art works primarily takes the of jewelry, paintings, sculptor and photography.

Life and Career

Early Life

Was born and raised in Los Angeles California, where she still lives. Roth was raised by her mother, Charlene Roth, her mother was also a self-employed business owner. She owned a small business that made porcelain awards for horse shows. This exposure and influence helped to make Roth into the artist she is today, and her mother's work is and was very influential in her pieces.

Career

Prior to opening and owning her business “Surly Ramics”, Roth opened an art gallery in North Hollywood.  During this time Roth began creating and selling ceramic necklaces. However, due to financial despair and lack of knowledge on owning a business the art gallery went bankrupt and Roth became homeless. Due to these life experiences and lack of financial support Roth became depressed, and no longer created art.

Approximately a year since the bankruptcy of her art gallery Roth began working as a waitress in hopes of saving money to start another career within the world of art. At this time, Roth was living in small one bed room apartment.  During her time working as a waitress, Roth began making ceramic necklaces again.  Roth was able to create and work in her mother's backyard art studio.

During the time period in which Roth worked as a waitress, and prior to the development of her business, Roth developed an interest in science. This interest in science then expanded into interest in skepticism, and all of this was then translated into the message and purpose that is now seen in Roth’s artwork. It was after change in her artwork that she began to experience success within this field, and then after time and experience, Roth opened her current business, “Surly-Ramics” in 2005

Surly-Ramics

Surly-Ramics was opened on the online data base “etsy” in 2007. Roth still operates her business through this site. Roth’s jewelry is handmade ceramic jewelry and accessories inspired by science and nature.  All jewelry created by Roth is “one-of-a-kind” and is hand formed and painted in the style ceramics arts.  The mission statement of the business is;

• To provide our customers with affordable jewelry created with innovation, quality craftsmanship and attention to detail.
  • To produce beautiful little works of art that are accessible to the everyday person
  • To create and to offer new styles on a regular basis
  • To pursue beauty, creativity and truth
  • To make art you can wear

Since the opening of Surly-Ramics, Roth has since developed a website in which she also sells her paintings and has a “Patreon”. Patreon allows for artists to build relationships and provide exclusive experiences to subscribers. It allows the general public to subscribe through a membership program to follow a said artist. It is through Patreon that Roth investigates weekly science related themes and then displayed this investigation and her new findings within an illustration. Within the world of science and Roth’s overall interest within this field, she holds personal interest in the realms of chemistry and physics.

Skepchick

Alongside Roth’s contributions to Patreon, Roth is also a contributor to blog Skepchick.  Roth’s contributions are pieces in which she writes about critical thinking, feminism, secularism science and pop culture. All subjects are also interlaced with art and her own art creating. Through her developments within being a contributor to Skepchick, Roth later became a managing editor and co-founder of sister site “Mad Art Lab”.

Mad Art Lab

Mad Art Lab is a blog site that specifically discusses and posts about the intersections of art and science.

Activism and Impact

A Women’s Room

Is an art installation that was organized by Roth during 2014 and was open for viewing from September 13^thto October 13^th2014 in the CFI-LA on the second floor. The installation is about online harassment and stalking all based off a women’s perspective. Roth gathered and included feminist bloggers, journalists and artists who base the majority of their individual business from online.  The women included are

• Rebecca Watson
• Greta Christina
• Courtney Caldwell
• Sikivu Hutchinson
• Melody Hensley
• Dr Ray Burks
• Amanda Marcotte
• Soraya Chemaly
• Stephanie Zvan
• Lindy West

The aim of the installation was to turn online hate experienced by these women and turn it into art, in statement pieces. A Women’s Room is in reference to art installation “Womanhouse” (1972) by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. Womanhouse was an exhibition where an entire house was taken over by a group of feminist women artists.. Each room in the house was a different art installation, in the different forms of expression (performance, visual, etc.).  A Women’s Room was a reference to this art installation, but the goal was to modernize the feminist issues by exposing the issues through the online space

A Women’s Room was a recreation of an average office workspace, but Roth altered the room to exemplify the feeling of being targeted though test pieces. The office space was filled with everyday objects and office materials, but the objects where blanketed in hateful and anti-feminist messages that were publically posted and/or sent to the women. The messages included within this exhibition span the course if 5 years. The themes found within this exhibition are that of ignoring hate, and confidence in one's self. The installation was meant to shed light on bullying and online privacy. Overall Roth’s goal was to inspire and encourage women to not be silent and that all deserve safe spaces.

Los Angeles Women’s Atheist and Agnostic Group

Los Angeles Women’s Atheist and Agnostic Group or LAWAAG was founded but Roth, and is a private group for people who identify as women or are gender queer. Roth founded this group in 2015 and after three years of operation, there are over 50 members. Within this group, woman meet monthly and Roth teaches fluid painting and pouring classes. This group is for women living secular lifestyles, and are interested in science, art, literature, feminism, critical thinking, social activism, social support and friendship.  LAWAAG is organized and run by Roth using the online database “meetup”. Meetup is a site that allows for people with similar interests to set up in-person events.

Publishes

The Feel Good Bar and Grill

Roth is the author and illustrator of the fictional children’s story called the Feel Good Bar and Grill. This story is an all age fictional story that can be coloured in by the reader. It is about a robot named Lina who decides to build a restaurant on the moon called Enceladus. The Feel Good Bar and Grill is a pit stop for travellers of space. The book takes the form of a stand-alone story, and coloring book. The book is both educational in discussion to facts about science. However, fictional about the robots and their environment.

External links

• http://surlyramics.com/
• http://surly.etsy.com/
• http://patreon.com/surlyamy
• http://facebook.com/Surlyramics
• https://www.meetup.com/Pot-and-Paint/

References

This article "Amy Davis Roth" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Amy Davis Roth. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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