Adrienne Sacks

The job of an artist is to gather experiences through observation and formulate aspects of those perceptions into visual experiences for others.

Some of the subject matter that I am most drawn to includes the natural world, the current socio-political climate, and digital culture. Climate serves as a good metaphor for each of the topics and the ways in which these worlds are particularly prone to mutual influence and change. I am also interested in how spirituality can fit into our current climate, and I choose to explore this quite literally in the spaces within paintings. My work involves drawing comparisons and synthesizing different visual environments or climates, so it is helpful for me to have complete control of how that collaging occurs. Painting, oil painting in particular, provides a good medium for blending visual elements and being forced to express them in unique language.

My work is comedy and I do want my work to be a place where people can laugh. But, I think as the person who made it, I see the larger issues that informed the work. I see the way elements of modern climate clash. I see discordant colors, juxtaposition of texture, and the way in which scale, or the way we weigh different aspects of our climate, can be clumsy. I would not describe my work as aesthetic because I find these elements to combine in ways that can be shocking, but also thought-provoking. I work in favor of a sort of character development as opposed to working off of the human form. I am trying to look at issues that humans have created and I find it is helpful to do that outside of the scope of their bodies. The character I have developed is a self-portrait of the way I feel about our climate- the way I, and many others, try to pick up pieces of what is left of the natural world, the opportunities of technology, and spiritual practice and try to live there. I strive to connect with honesty about the ways in which it is difficult to be a creature in this climate. I want to give people permission to feel that pain and reflect on the actions we have taken that have brought us to the current moment. I am not trying to say that things are horrible, so much as I am trying to show how things are.