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Artist Statement
All of my works are “innerscapes” which depict the mental and emotional topography of struggling to come to terms with crossroad situations that present difficult conflicting values and emotions. These innerscapes represent the “rompecabezas” (“puzzles” in Spanish, but literally “headbreakers”) of life. The situations range from frequently occurring crossroads such as losing someone close to you, becoming depressed with the way your life is going, being unsure which way to go on a difficult decision.
Each crossroad brings out the emotions that usually lay dormant under our outward facing persona: anger, fear, love, joy. But also our emotions can be drawn out by crossroad situations which are not personal but impact us emotionally and intellectually and challenge us to reexamine who we are: we confront ourselves everyday in the media recording the lives of people who live on the edge of what is acceptable to society. Brutal acts with self-serving motivation, outstanding achievement in the face of overwhelming odds, repetitively self-destructive behavior are a few examples. The iconic figures in fairy tales, morality tales, and myths which depict conflicted forces for good and evil with direct causalities and consequences (witches, Prometheus, Odysseus) have enduring themes. They are perennially popular because they allow us vicarious participation in lives which are not our own but which echo the decisions we face in modern life.
I use multiple media to try to capture the uneven quality of these conflicts: oil and acrylic paint, wire/cord, embedded objects, photographs. I work on paper and board mostly and try to give a three-dimensional look to every piece, often projecting the content beyond the flat and square borders of the frame which constrain most art and most acceptable human behavior.
I love what I do because it is ever refreshed by the daily paper and the twists and turns of my own life and those that are close to me. |
| Bio |
Sermarr is available for commissions and special orders!
Sermarr was born in the Southern United States and had a successful career in business in New York City and San Francisco before leaving and beginning to paint full time.
Inspirations for the paintings are stories found in the news, myths, family or national stories. The paintings depict the “innerscapes” where humans experience conflicting crossroads between logic and emotion. Symbolic imagery conjures characteristics of each puzzle as we decide what to do and how to think about something that brings beliefs, habits and self interest into conflict.
Sermarr’s process of producing the paintings is unusual and involves painted surfaces and three-dimensional effects. Embedded objects, cord, glass and other methods are employed to achieve the layered, varied end results. |