Artist Statement - I’m Swimming And There Is No Water

ARTIST STATEMENT “I’m Swimming And There Is No Water”,- SUNDARA HEART

Instead of the usual two page prose that accompanies her work,   Heart for this series titled: “I’m Swimming And There Is No Water”, offers you a poem. 

“I’m Swimming And There Is No Water”

My arms hurt

My legs hurt

I’m cold

I’m swimming and there is no water

My suit is tight

Flesh hangs over it’s sides

My skin the color of my suit

I’m swimming and there is no water

My top lip trembles

My hair tickles my face

I haven’t moved from this spot since I was two years old

I’m swimming and there is no water

I’ve visited France, Egypt, The Sahara Desert

Watched the sun disappear over the horizon

Spoken six languages since breakfast

I’m swimming and there is no water

I’m tired

Ready for bed

These armbands no longer inflate

I’m swimming and there is no water

- Sundara Heart 2017

Sundara Heart grew up in a small town in the North of England. In 2012 she received her Batchelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting from The Metropolitan State University of Denver and went on to become the founder and resident artist at “Grant Street Artworks”; an art collective and work studios in the heart of the city. Her work there explored color, light, night, motion, grime, city, communication, and place.

Now a resident of Taos, NM she explores, the human Spirit, the Figure, light, connection, line, texture, and space.  This new series titled: I’m Swimming And There Is No Water,” called for Heart to again become the subject of the work, expanding on the series titled, “Self” from Spring 2018 where among other things she explored the impermanence of the body, pain, transformation, and falling in love. These new paintings attempt to explore patterns and tendencies that we create for ourselves and with others when we play hide and seek with our emotions and behavior. They also explore forgiveness, separation and total surrender.

Artists that inform this series include Russian Born Artist, Marina Krasnitskaya, Italian born Artist Felice Casorati and Austrian born Painter Egon Schiele. Krasnitskaya vivid color choices, and free flowing use of line and shape brought about much inspiration. Casaroti’s muted pallets, playful textiles and flesh-like figures gave much instruction and Schiele’s excellent way of expressing emotional figures through line and intentional brush marks always inspire.