ARTIST STATEMENT
I collage and paint to experience the world with greater clarity and resonance. I draw inspiration from a variety of sources from fashion, nature, and interpersonal relationships. An example of my use of collage in painting is my “7 x 5 in. mixed media piece Bathing Beauties. In it, I render two anthropomorphic swans in pen and ink and acrylic paint, embracing in a side hug. This scene is surrounded by a gold filigree design. Their pose and it’s framing was inspired by friendship portraits, a common subject for photography in the Victorian era. Similar themes of interpersonal relationships are carried over into my “5 x 7 in. oil painting, “Psychometry.” The red octopuses superimposed on a photograph of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan is partially inspired by the term for the use of the sense of touch to gain extra sensory perception and partially the relationship of these two women who connected on a mental level through touch. Finally, I return to the fantasy realm of my Jackalope character in my “13 x 16 in. watercolor “Stargazers.” In it I paint a scene of an anthropomorphic Jackalope and Fox dressed in Victorian ball gowns and standing in starlit field of lilies. Between them they hold a stargazer lily, the inspiration for the title and the activity they are engaging in. It is a further homage to personal connections past and present and the further illumination they engender.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I am an artist from Cincinnati, OH. I graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor’s in Illustration from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. That same year I received an Award for Excellence in the Visual from the Independent College and Universities of Ohio. Since 2013, I have been working out of my studio at the Pendleton Art Center in Over-the Rhine, Cincinnati. My art is on display in Studio 414 in the Pendleton Art Center and also on display at MiCA 12/v in Over-the-Rhine. My work has been featured in two motion pictures. I have instructed art privately, in after school programs and fine art centers. I paint, sculpt, draw and digitally collage artwork inspired by my fascination with historical fashion, the natural world and philosophy. I create to enhance and elucidate the underlying structure of my personal life the world around me.
© Sarah Rocheleau