Blaze

Creator

Sharon Gearhart, Ursinus College

Preview

Student Exhibition Year

2024

Description

Oil on canvas board painting depicting a lightbulb in a cage. Presented as part of the 2024 Annual Student Exhibit in the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College.

Artist Statement

Life is not a stagnant, premeditated road; I capture this through the movement in my paintings. My artistic choices are also created within the fluctuation of life experiences, and I encourage the viewer to look at my paintings while in motion. Move up close, view from a distance, crane your head against the wall.

I am particularly inspired by Fauvism, and contemporary artists’ continuation of this movement. Beginning from a selection of my own photographs, I paint a singular image or collage of images. My canvas is prepped with a bright basecoat of a color to set the value of the piece, usually in warm tones. Gradually, I layer on strokes of color straight from paint tubes; these colors begin to slowly blend themselves on the canvas into a comprehensive image.

For years I was fixated on the need to portray philosophical themes in my work, and this extracted all the freedom and enjoyment out of being an artist. I began considering the work of painters from Édouard Manet to Alice Neel for their skill and process of telling stories through their subjects. That is what I do; I am a storyteller. I paint for people, for everyone. The young generation of angsty teenagers, the stubborn grandparents who lecture on politics, the factory worker who wants to escape a dead-end job. Through my work, I share a space where others have the freedom to sit with free-flowing thoughts.

Rights Statement

Copyright of the underlying work is held by the artist. The digital image presented here is for educational purposes only and is not for commercial use.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.