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        Sarah Gustafson (Connecticut) (see images below) Sarah Gustafson’s background is impressive. She has a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Michigan and a MFA in Printmaking from the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art. She also studied Surface and Textile Design at the Rhode Island School of Design. She has exhibited extensively throughout Connecticut including the Bushnell Theatre in Hartford and Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford. She has also received many awards recognizing the extraordinary caliber of her art. Gustafson’s work explores different ways of creating a surface by layering textures, patterns, color, and graphic elements. The work evolves continuously as she experiments. She reinterprets ideas using hand-cut stencils, brushes, and folded paper. With these elements she builds up varied layers of paint on the canvas. Subtle manipulations of any one or more of these components create amazingly unique works. The surface indeed reigns supreme in Gustafson’s work. There are no singular objects that seek special attention. Particular forms are certainly evident upon inspection but they are subservient to the whole. This circumstance is similar to the Mannerist Style of Architecture most prominently featured in Florence, Italy where Sarah studied. For the Mannerists, the building surface was paramount and all elements of the surface served the whole rather than seeking singular attention. Also common to Italy are the rich textures and layers of peeling paint, cracked plaster, and exposed stone and wood. Similarly, Gustafson’s work seems to represent the passage of time revealing the varied music of our lives. This sense of discovery and revelation make her pieces especially luminescent. |
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