Statement Sharon Healy
I believe the role of art is to expand consciousness. The way to do that is to understand and recreate experiences and symbols that are outside of our understanding. I feel that mankind is intrinsically drawn to understanding our origins, purpose, and creator. I believe we, as a collective, know the answers to these questions (Questions such as “who are we?” “what is our purpose? What does it mean to be human? How do I truly feel alive?”) but aren't able to access the information, or don't have the ability to understand it. All over the world and throughout history people have had experiences that they don't understand, or have the language to communicate. Is it some science we have not discovered yet, or a divine experience, or both? I believe there is something that ancient cultures, myth, religious symbols, archetypes, gods/goddesses etc. were all trying to communicate. But what? Why are so many of the symbols the same? Joeseph Campbell says,
"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that what is what we're really seeking.
I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely
physical plane will have resonances within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive...
Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life."
The art I create aspires to make mythical images and symbols relateable in a real and modern way. To explore the mystery of life by recreating the things I don't understand, in hopes that I begin to. My work primarily aims to contain universal messages, yet applicable on an individual basis.
My goal is to have a viewer comfortably on edge, riding the line between grasping the concept as much as they are bewildered. To have a sense of attachment to the space they share with the idea and the piece. I want the work to speak to a collective unconscious that everyone is apart of, so that we may explore these ideas consciously. I use tools such as tactile textures, and visual tension to evoke a visceral reaction in the viewer. I want the viewer to feel as though through my work they are having a divine experience or beginning to tap into a collective databank of information.
Anatomy is one of my passions, and is reflected in my work. I paint figuratively because the human body amazes me. It is a marvel of simplicity juxtaposed with complex engineering. I also believe that humans are fractals. We are apart of something infinitely large and small at the same time. We can understand the entire cosmos in one cell. All of the questions and answers we could possibly want are already within us. Most of my work has an emotional quality to it because emotions are a human’s response to its environment. In particular, I am drawn to the expressive quality of faces and hands.
I like the power and presence that large paintings have. I use both oils and acrylics layered; acrylic under-painting with oils over the acrylic. This allows me to have very loose gestural painted areas juxtaposed with very tightly rendered areas, demonstrating the versatility of the media, as well as reflecting the way that humans perceive with their own eyes. Non traditional media are incorporated: thread, metal, paper, fabric and various other objects as well as sewing into the surface. These low-relief sculptures provide a tactile invasion of the space between the viewer and the piece, allowing one to bridge the experience between 2-D and 3-D.
Bio BIO
Born in 1985, Sharon Healy is a Denver based multi media painter. She studied and recieved a batchlor's degree from Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, with an emphasis on drawing and painting. She has been painting since 2003 and is nationally collected. Showing work in multiple galleries in the Denver area, her work has been described as:"Sharon Healy's work will transport you into the hallucinogenic dreamworld of your archetypal subconscious. Intrigued? Confused? You won't be once you're in the presence of these immaculately large and spectacularly colored pieces of expanded consciousness. To be near Sharon's work is to be tapped into the universal messages of life and humanity. As a C.G. Jung enthusiast, Ms. Healy seeks to take his theory of the collective unconscious (look it up!) and make its references to our attachment to myths, gods and goddesses, more accessible and aesthetically palatable. She does this with remarkable success. Her work lovingly grasps you and coaxes you to transcend into an experience outside of yourself. These mind blowing pieces of multi-media include bullet casings and hand stitched threading in a way that at once will make you want to fall into them to be completely immersed and spread your own wings to soar. As otherworldly as this collection may be it never stray from the fact that Sharon classically and perfectly depicts the spectacular anatomy of the female figure. Soaking in the ambiance of any of these pieces, makes you feel like a goddess yourself."She is inspired by artists such as: Alex Grey, Audrey Kawasaki, Mark Rothko, Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Clyfford Still, Jenny Saville, Robert Rauschenberg, Milk, and many, many more. When not in the studio she enjoys snowboarding, traveling, music, science, reading, and yoga.
