The Long March, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 64 x 68 inches.
Martha Sedgwick
Artist Statement
The foundation of my paintings begins with multiple layers of color. The interplay between light and dark creates a spatially infinite space, like looking into a reflecting pool or through mist. Simple hieroglyphic-type shapes positioned between the layers act as a compositional anchor, subtly revealing their ghostlike presence within the ambiguous space. Like an echo, they exist in a liminal space between past and present.
I spend a lot of time observing the natural world and engaged by its inherent tension. I am acutely aware of what has been lost to me through development and climate change, as well as the more immediate register through which I experience change in the moment. My work exists at the intersection of observable space and memory, which is more fluid and interpretive.
As an artist, I want to distill that which feels urgent, fleeting and ephemeral about my life into something tangible. Like a map my art practice, and the work that flows from it, provides me a way to mark where I've come from and offers a path forward.
Past Group Exhibitions: Structures of Feeling, 2022 Fractal Nature, 2021 Forever is composed of Nows, 2020 Active directions of the mind, 2019