sarah helser
until the light comes
november 7 – december 20, 2014
each time i create a painting it is in the hope to reshape the familiar into the numinous and magical essence of what it carries. it is the brief glimmering speck of a dream, made permanently tangible before it is lost in the waking hours. joining the realistic with the imagined breathes harmony in the contrast and reshapes and impacts the way we see. in every piece there is a certain gravity combined with playfulness and whimsy, reflecting the seldom caught occasions of marvel in our ordinary lives. seized for a moment, the paradise of childlike imaginings are not lost but remembered, hoped for, realized and resurrected in the mind.
i paint as a way to make definite the combination of both experience and the deeply personal reflections of the imagination. i approach each painting with an openness, letting it become fully changed from any initial concept. completely understanding a narrative while i create is not important. instead i allow the imagery to lead me, a conversation that illuminates and pulls at the hidden longings and beauty of the heart. using layering and multiple mediums, each painting forms and reforms until it comes into its own organic completion. i myself am often surprised by its outcome. i cannot capture all of the world around me, so for a brief moment i marvel in the mystery that it has captured me. they are meant to stand as physical reminders, a moment to reflect that beauty is not lost, that the dreamer and the child still exist within. they are the embodiment of these things, combined with the bittersweet gravity that years and life bring. the hope though, is that the pulse of these works would soften the weight, standing as a strip of gold hiding in the crease of a grey morning.
--sarah helser, 2014