Sara Adlerstein Gonzalez

member since 2014


Bio: Born in Chile, I left in 1983 to attend graduate school at the University of Washington. I am an applied aquatic ecologist and currently a faculty member at the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. I did not pursue academic training in the arts and have been painting for as long as I have been a scientist. I have curated national and international exhibits, and I teach courses bridging arts and sciences to students of diverse backgrounds. My work has been shown in galleries and museums in Chile, Europe, Canada and the US and is part of public and private art collections, and has been published in books and magazines.

In my world, art and science belong together as naturally as air and water. Both inform my work influencing my approach. Observation, experimentation, improvisation, searching for patterns all comes together within the creative process. As such I have developed my own mixed media techniques and my research influences the subject of my paintings. The process has been magical, nurturing and informative. My paintings are often environmentally based and images build on my experience as a scientist and my sensibility as an artist to communicate concerns, dreams, and emotions all emerging from a deep and relentless love for life.

Through my work I explore physical and intangible worlds: magic into reality, reality into magic. As I paint I see emerging expressions of my feelings about people, daily concerns, nature, unseen microscopic worlds, the past, the future, and life in general. My voice expands in diffuse surfaces, in loud tones with sharp edges and bright colors, or finds its way through thick textures and dark shadows, as the expressions become secretive, personal, festive, timorous, rebellious or even imprudent. My work is improvisational, experimental in technique, and diverse in subject matter. I am fascinated by the creative process and I am in constant exploration of new possibilities. Subject matter ranges from organic abstractions to figurative representations. I often create organic shapes and landscapes, symbolic of my love for life on Earth and my concern for the future of the planet. Even my abstract images are emotional expressions. In my figurative work I often choose the female "landscape" as a symbol of life, mother earth or human kind. My landscapes transcend spatial reference and can be as small as a cell or as large as a universe: is all in the eye of the beholder. Through my art I share my life, thoughts and feelings to the viewer and hope for a moment of communication of magic and reality.

http://saraadlerstein.wordpress.com/

Another Spring, 40”h by 40”w, mixed media.

Another Spring, 40”h by 40”w, mixed media.

Water Blues, 40”h by 48”w, mixed media.

Water Blues, 40”h by 48”w, mixed media.

Fear no Color, 48“h by 32”w, mixed media.

Fear no Color, 48“h by 32”w, mixed media.

Between Seas, 48”h by 32”w, mixed media on board

Between Seas, 48”h by 32”w, mixed media on board

Mirage, 48”h by 32”w, mixed media

Mirage, 48”h by 32”w, mixed media