Artist Statement - Loose Spirited Constructions
ARTIST STATEMENT - Loose Spirited Constructions 2017
The Portrait in Art has been studied and executed since the beginning of our existence. It’s nothing new. Yet, despite the rich, and varied artwork that has adorned homes, Institutions and Gallery’s throughout the ages we still know very little about ourselves and very little about others. We believe in separation. We see the ‘other' as separate to ourselves.
This series titled: “Loose Spirited Constructions”, is a body of encaustic wax paintings, and chalk pastel drawings that attempt to explore this idea by inviting the viewer to connect to a deeper experience with the people and the places they live and visit. Superficial connections are experienced all over the place. By shifting the perspective, and inviting the audience to slow down, be present, study the lines, the layers, and the intricacies to the work, so we can see better qualities as people and therefore better qualities in ourselves and in others.
Encaustic wax, is tactile, warm and forgiving. Encaustic wax builds in layers, that can be removed. This process is an important metaphor for humans. In it’s natural form encaustic wax [beeswax and damar resin] is transparent allowing the deeper layers to still show through.
Pastel is lush and rich. It is also soft and playful.
By practicing the art of looking, in the service of inquiry and understanding, you will quickly discover how little you know about yourself and those in front of you. Here then, is an opportunity to dig safely, peel back the layers, the ideals, the conditioning, and the beliefs to open up to other possibilities, ways of seeing and substance in oneself and in others. It’s easy to be elsewhere. But elsewhere is not what’s happening here.
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 in her studio on the North end of town.
Artists that inform these works are British Born Artist, Lucien Freud, Local Taos Artist, RC Gorman and Art Critique, Lucy Lippard. Freud and Gorman’s almost stroke-free technique and slightly flattened, distorted pieces connect to my intention for the work and preferred style. Like Freud, Heart doesn’t seek to obtain Objective Realism in her work, rather she is more interested in the psychological and spiritual sides of the Figure in general. Lippard’s book, The Lure of the Local: Sense of Place in a Multi-centered Society, suggests that “most communities don't think artists are as indispensable as plumbers or dentists, and that few artists see themselves as local service providers”. For Lippard and Heart, the local is important to explore. And these paintings and drawings are her attempt to do just that.
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