Sarah Van Beckum

The moods and whims of nature influence my work. Making art is a deeply engaging process. As an observer by type, my art can be quiet and contemplative or energetic and aggressive. Drawing from nature’s forms, ingrained from the countryside of my youth, painting is my search for meaning. Images imprint themselves on our consciousness as we see them. But time fades explicit memory. What remains is buried deep within, and evokes emotion upon recall. I strive to reflect that emotional memory in my work. The art is full of abstractions but also reveals imagery suggestive of something more established and concrete.

Leaving the everyday realm for the canvas allows the expression of a full range of emotion: calm, energetic, joyful, and even agitated. Making art is an outpouring of a need to put things in order – a soul tantrum or celebration that is played out with paint on a surface. A bold fearlessness allows me to paint with abandon to best hear a voice speaking to an understanding of place in nature and the world.

Fear, struggle, comfort, and love are battled and enjoyed through the process. Contrast and contradictions; action and reaction; expected and unexpected – always searching for complexity, it is often found in the simplest of forms.

The works evolve into the unfamiliar and unknown. The paintings are not me. They are offspring, each with a distinctive personality. Conflicts with the works arise in their creation, but self-discovery takes place along the way. When a settled place is found, then the painting is complete, and I feel the serenity and rightness of the the outcome.