Sarah West explores the divine through art
By Liza Coffin
T
he mystery of the digital world is our modern day Renaissance, and it points to our innate human desire for something greater.
This is the mentality of Birmingham resident and artist Sarah West. West works primarily in oils, and spends her time working out her observations of the physical, spiritual and digital world and how they relate to perspective and the human condition.
This is the mentality of Birmingham resident and artist Sarah West. West works primarily in oils, and spends her time working out her observations of the physical, spiritual and digital world and how they relate to perspective and the human condition.
She seeks to visualize the transformational period of the Renaissance and its art as it relates to the secret of modern digital technological advancement and our tactile world. Her works encapsulate a classical, bygone sort of feeling while layering over a digital presence, pointing to a greater meaning within the work.
In the midst of the visual chaos of many of West’s works, remnants of famous Renaissance paintings are found as small details, or obscured and deteriorated through Photoshop. She then uses that deteriorated image as a muse for her painted artwork. West says Renaissance work is her inspiration because it shows the beginnings of artists playing with a sense of time and space through perspective.
For example, West said Giovanni di Paolo’s panel work of John the Baptist walks through the story of his life, representing him multiple times within the same work — showing time passing.
“There was something about it that felt very contemporary, that was like — this makes me think about…how we experience space,” West said. Many Renaissance works invite viewers to come into a space and experience a spiritual feeling. Think of portraits of holy saints, some donning halos or appearing as if they are glowing. Often, these classical works explore how the spiritual world and physical world interact or even overlap.
Simultaneously, a digital theme interrupts those classical perspectives, as icons are painted repeatedly in West’s works as if they are popup ads on a computer screen. Emojis and symbols are scattered around her painted scenes; drawings she made in Photoshop dance around the borders. West says she noticed that not many contemporary artists pursue the concepts of space, perspective and time through a digital lens. “I looked at painters and I felt like there’s not a lot of painters making work about what it’s like to engage with a digital space,” West explained. In the same way that Renaissance works depict an almost impossible scene of holiness or the warping of time, so does the digital space. West suggests that along with the spiritual and physical world, cyberspace offers a third reality to be explored.
West views the digital world as a window into the “new sublime.” The “sublime” being something greater that humans seek to achieve or obtain. West says, “digital space is like a pursuit of greater enlightenment and transformation.”
Just as the Renaissance era and its art reflect a period of cultural enlightenment and the pursuit of knowledge, both practically and spiritually, digital space opens up a third reality that has an almost mysterious character to it, full of endless information and possibilities.
West says how we can interact with technology is a clear indication of the human need for “the spiritual” or spiritual fulfillment. “Digital space offers a limited glimpse of something beyond ourselves” she says. Expanding on this “limited” quality, West references the “uncanny valley,” an idea that suggests that there is something eerie or unsettling about renderings that seem human, but are obviously just attempts at recreating it, such as CGI people.
West’s goal is to depict that secret, invisible thing that all humans desire. Because this “something” is not fully knowable, West invites people of all religious or nonreligious backgrounds to view her and engage in her art. While West is a Christian and sees this “thing” to be attained as part of the Christian experience, perhaps as sanctification or relationship with Christ, she invites everyone to come dwell on her pieces and ponder what it means to them. West says that including Christian narratives from the Renaissance in her art is her way of indicating her own spiritual experience.
While West works with oil paints on panels, she also utilizes digital tools. West uses Photoshop frequently in the preliminary stages of her works. She uses it to map out her ideas before getting out her paints. West uses a trackpad to draw designs into the software. Often, her renditions of famous works are obscured and missing huge chunks. West says she uses the paint bucket tool on the software to randomly obliterate sections of pixels to get this effect. She then uses these creations as references for her greater painting that is working on.
“I want there to be a tension between something man made…something made by hand, but then something that’s more synthetic,” West says. While her works focus on exploring old and new realities, even her techniques reflect this exploration, as she utilizes the same oil paints that old masters used and employs the services that modern technology has to offer.
