Sophie's Artist Statement

I strive to create order out of chaos in my work by combining the organic forms of my subjects with compositional or geometric structures. I am inspired by the geometric simplicity and joyful nature of Charley Harper’s work, as well as by the treatment of light and edge in the works of both Anders Zorn and John Singer Sargent. My work is sometimes from direct observation and sometimes from invention. In both cases, I want my work to make the present feel like a gift and to momentarily erase the act of interpretation and judgment from the gap between seeing and feeling. I aim to return myself and my viewer to a more childlike and intuitive approach to the world where everything makes sense but also inspires curiosity. Nature and people are recurring subjects in my work; I often find myself marveling at what it means to be alive — for both humans and other organisms. I explore these themes in a variety of 2D media, including pencil, film, paint, and Procreate. Pencil allows me to focus on form; film on composition; and paint, film, and Procreate on color, a particular area of struggle and growth for me.