Website: http://www.sbarrettart.com/
For years I have been taking photographic notes that serve as a collective library of imagery to draw upon when creating paintings. The light always has this extraordinary way of changing the reality of what I am photographing, always suggesting transformation and a sense of an extended moment in time. When we look at the world we see what is in front of us but we also make connections from a lifetimes’ worth of visual memories. So when I work I am looking to de-trivialize the scene before me by weaving together images from sometimes completely different original sources—a medieval church and a dilapidated railroad bridge, a row of vacation cottages and peacock feathers. Sometimes it is the same place with multiple perspectives intertwined. The synthesis of images may be subtly woven together or presented as an open dialogue as in a diptych. This conversation between imagery is at the center of my work. Though I operate out of an American Realist tradition, I also draw upon aesthetic inventions from Surrealism and Pop Art—all artists who also represent the ordinary in extraordinary ways. As a result my influences are eclectic, running the gamut from Vermeer to Hopper to Ernst to Rosenquist.
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence R.I.
New York University, New York, NY; B.S. cum laude in fine arts
Hunter College, New York, NY; M.A.; Fine Arts, painting concentration
Pace University, Pleasantville NY; Advanced Certificate in Art Education