Sharon's Art Show
Breadcrumbs 2008. Rust, paper, 55.9 cm x 86.4 cm.
B/p/m. Ink, paper, 66cm x 203.2 cm.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Sharon Arnold http://www.dimensionsvariable.org
Sharon Arnold is a Seattle based artist whose projects manifest through unique and repetitive applications of both traditional and non-traditional materials. After a whirlwind career as a chef in Seattle and New York, Sharon returned to art school at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY, completing her last year Magna Cum Laude at Cornish College of the Arts in 2006. Falling in love once again with her childhood town, Sharon opted to remain in Seattle rather than return to New York, and schemes over her obsessive creations from the very Pacific Northwest-y damp of her basement. Her current series revolves around process, repetition, presence, and labour. She likes to think of it as a fictional cartography, combining methods of mapping with the idea of place.
ABOUT THE WORK
Most of the work embodies a topographical feel either by process or by pattern. While not intentional, it’s not without reason. I have purpose in materials but intuit the process, like formulæ without the math. The element of surprise is critical - the rule is don’t think about the end result, and while paper, steel, ink are the media they are not the point.
In drawings, I traverse distance by threading or tracing across a field of paper. An aesthetic result is almost circumstantial, as each mark records the path behind it. This is a marker of where I am, and of where I’ve been.
In printmaking, I corrode steel plates to destroy the surface and leave an impression on paper -- the corrosion becomes part of the finished work as well as the process. The embossed and rusted surface effectively records a moment of human interference-a stain being an inherently human deposit. This too, records that I was here.
Process, repetition, and labour are the methods by which I reach a conclusion.
Philosophy, obsession, and location are my exploration.
Sharon Arnold (right)
Untitled 2008. Staples, paper, 45.7 cm x 91.4 cm.
B/p/m. Ink, paper, 66cm x 203.2 cm.
Rift 2006. String, paper, 198.1 cm x 304.8 cm.
more photos from the show