Artist of the Day: In Nature - Sarah Ogren

In Nature Sarah Ogren saraogren.etsy.com

This is a lovely piece. Perfect to help me refocus and get my snarl behind me.

Charles Simic, noted poet and mystic of words, stated that, collage is the medium of the mystic. I think so.

I believe my thoughts, my inner world, my entire life is one giant collage. Yours probably is as well.

What an interesting idea. What if we started see each other as collages, works in progress, rather than a finished piece? We're all a little bit of this and that, and perhaps need a good coat of gel medium to shine us up a bit, or one more thing pasted on to make the day a little more on the rosy side.

Artist Bio:
Artist StatementMy work is often a reflection of my current life difficulties, triumphs, and questions with a childhood influence. I guess you could say I have a strong existential philosophy and I am using my art to figure out what life means to me. I often take conversations and experiences from my every day life and incorporate them into my work. These conversations and experiences are expressed in the subject matter of a collage but also can be hidden in the imagery and titles of the work as well.

I have a background in Professional Counseling and through my work with my clients, I have always been amazed at how complex and often surprising a person’s inner life is. Often, first impressions are misleading and I have found that there is this secret life within each person, which is why I choose to work in the medium of collage and choose to use animal heads on my figures. Collage for me is representative of the layers of human experience. The animal heads are a kind of mask. A way of presenting to the world what we want others to see and not having to reveal our true selves. I find it intriguing that we all try to hide our weaknesses, but that our weaknesses are what make us human and make us similar and revealing them is what helps to bring us closer to one another. It is my desire to expose some of the weaknesses of the subjects of my collage work, and to do it in a light-hearted way that everyone can relate to.

The whimsical feel of my work comes from my own child-like qualities, but also because I’m especially drawn to individuals who maintain that certain level of curiosity, fearlessness and spontaneity that many of us seem to lose as we get older. It is this energy that I wish to capture in my work. To remind us all that life doesn’t have to be so difficult and that sometimes a change of perspective is all that is needed to make our lives a little easier.