SARAH COLEMAN
Artist Statement
The sky inspires me. For the last decade I have made paintings with imagery solely from the sky. It's a way that I connect with with my ancestors and humankind in general. We share the same sky, atmosphere, stars, sun and moon. I believe this is where we came from and where we will return. The sky's expansiveness leads to contemplation and dreaming, and I love it's fierce beauty and ability to carve out and reshape our landscapes.
Born in Marysville, Ca. in 1976, I was raised in the suburbs of Texas and Minnesota before returning to rural Northern California. Along the way, I was fascinated by the way the changing landscapes were influenced by unique skies, each with it's own effect and mood. These environments and their cultures shaped my early life experience and sparked an interest in the emotional impacts of atmosphere, weather and the illusions they created.
My most recent work addresses Illusion. Layering mirrors and glass, I make three dimensional paintings that allow the viewer to look out into a cosmic or cloudy scene. In one style, a mirror, set in the back of the frame, reflects all that is before it, including the viewer who is confronted with seeing their own image inside the painting and part of the starry sky. Another more subtle style involves a mirror, silver spray paint and opaque "etched" glass. The possible variations of this exploration of light and reflection are endless.
I am driven by the interactive potential of optical illusions. Whether on metal leaf or mirror, my work's appearance varies greatly depending on the angle of the viewer and the quality of light or time of day. It moves and is dynamic like the sky. My goal is to make the clouds roll and the lightening strike within the frame.
“Coleman’s insight [is] to recognize abstraction as a readymade phenomenon, and to construe her job as one of discovering and presenting natural beauty…sending viewers back out into the world, newly sensitized to the compositional potential of everything around them.”
—Jonathon Keats, Conceptual Artist/Writer, Artweek Magazine
Born in Marysville, Ca. in 1976, I was raised in the suburbs of Texas and Minnesota before returning to rural Northern California. Along the way, I was fascinated by the way the changing landscapes were influenced by unique skies, each with it's own effect and mood. These environments and their cultures shaped my early life experience and sparked an interest in the emotional impacts of atmosphere, weather and the illusions they created.
My most recent work addresses Illusion. Layering mirrors and glass, I make three dimensional paintings that allow the viewer to look out into a cosmic or cloudy scene. In one style, a mirror, set in the back of the frame, reflects all that is before it, including the viewer who is confronted with seeing their own image inside the painting and part of the starry sky. Another more subtle style involves a mirror, silver spray paint and opaque "etched" glass. The possible variations of this exploration of light and reflection are endless.
I am driven by the interactive potential of optical illusions. Whether on metal leaf or mirror, my work's appearance varies greatly depending on the angle of the viewer and the quality of light or time of day. It moves and is dynamic like the sky. My goal is to make the clouds roll and the lightening strike within the frame.
“Coleman’s insight [is] to recognize abstraction as a readymade phenomenon, and to construe her job as one of discovering and presenting natural beauty…sending viewers back out into the world, newly sensitized to the compositional potential of everything around them.”
—Jonathon Keats, Conceptual Artist/Writer, Artweek Magazine
