The Artist
Artist's Statement
My fascination with celestial phenomena is what underlies most of my art work. Advances in technology have allowed us to explore and document regions in space that previously only existed in the imagination. Telescopic images of star bursts and hydrogen gas clouds are awe-inspiring, however, I find there is a disconnect between what I encounter in everyday life and what these photographs make manifest. My mind logically knows that we are connected to it, yet these phenomena tend to appear more like something out of a myth or a fairy tale than something real. Although the images are wildly abstract and fantastical, cosmic events such as supernovae and cosmic gushers are as real as the ground we walk on. With my paintings, I attempt to marry the two worlds
together, to bring the galaxy within reach. It is what it might look like if the earth's atmosphere were stripped away and we were able to view what lay thousands and millions of light years away. When outside, I often look at the ceiling of clouds above me, and imagine behind them billions of miles extending from the surface of the earth, filled with a power and energy far beyond anything I can reasonably comprehend. I imagine my feet, rooted by gravity to the pavement, carried along as the earth rotates and revolves around the sun.
In these paintings, stars explode flinging subatomic shards, not just in far-away realms, but here, on earth. Trees shiver and dance, with light emanating, leaving trails of color portraying the rotation of the earth on its axis. Clouds roar in, bringing the night sky filled with burning blazing star clusters or sun bursts, red with the heat of 20 million degrees. Northern lights scatter across the sky, the result of high energy particles from the sun raining down and inflaming the upper atmosphere. Life, energy, and creation exude from the landscapes that we often look at from the reservoir of our residual images. Our earth dwells in a turbulent and fabulous universe. My attempt is to evoke a sense of awe and wonder in the viewer. Not to remove them from reality, but to peel back the layers of habitual sight that cloud our perceptions and portray a powerful universe unfolding itself before us.
About Sarah Boys
Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Sarah Boys’ early years saw a burgeoning in her artistic talents fostered by Primary and Secondary school art teachers. In 1995, she began post-secondary education at the University of Alberta studying for two years in their Fine Arts as well as their Psychology program. She then transferred to Trinity Western University in January of 2002 and completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree in General Studies with minors in Art History and Psychology in December of 2004. She currently resides in Calgary, Alberta with her husband & newborn son, and is pursuing her life-long interest in the Visual Arts.