Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome writer, poet and visual artist Sara Risley of Wisconsin. “Recovery” features three striking artworks paired with poetry and a short article about her creative process. Sara is a photographer, painter and digital creator, synthesizing visions from nature, everyday life and her paintings into colorful abstractions.
“I was once told that my photographic images were healing, that taking time to gaze into the colors and shapes was calming and uplifting. I create from within myself. In that way I consider myself an Expressionist. I respect my feelings and allow where those feelings want to go inform and instruct what I am creating.
Abstract art offers questions; it does not, however, offer explicit answers or solutions but allows viewers to find them themselves. The search itself can be helpful because, in the end, there is no wrong or right answer. I hope that people see what they need to see in my work. That, to me, is the beauty of abstract art.
I DO what I feel so that you can SEE what you need to see.”
Tree is a figural abstract painting. A stylized tree painted in cool whites, blacks and purples on a blue square shares the space with a circle of hot yellows, oranges, pinks and greens. One thinks of the seasons, how a dormant winter tree contains the code for spring, summer and autumn color. I also associate this image with Yggdrasil, the Norse world-tree which supports the universe. Sara reminds us that each tree is a world and supports life.
While lying under trees to escape the anxiety of modern American life, Sara took photos of the branches and leaves above. Layering them and adding deep colors that evoke Tiffany glass in Photoshop, she created Look Up. It is so easy to get caught up in human activity and forget that there are natural processes going on all around us that sustain our world.
New World is a bright explosion of color, deep blues and greens in a vibrant circle over a flaming background of pinks, oranges and yellows. This interplay between coolness and heat is present in much of Sara’s artwork, and it mirrors the way our world needs balance while also revealing that there is room for all this variation of color and shading. Imagine if we could make room for the variety of human experience in our world, all the colors present in the human soul. There is so much hope here.
Experience Sara’s captivating artwork and poetry and read about her vision and process in Synkroniciti’s “Recovery” issue, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Sara Risley lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and in the depths of winter, wonders why. Born and raised in Elgin, Illinois, she got her BFA in photography and film arts from Southern Methodist University and, after a 27 year career as a portrait photographer making everyone look pretty, she was sick of reality and escaped into abstract art. She paints, collages, and creates photographic art all abstractly. Her photographic creations begin with her own digital photographs then she lets her quirky vision (and Photoshop) blend and meld different images into fine artwork. The source images can be anything that catches her eye: city grunge, nature, her own artwork, and even her own body.