Sarah Jacobs

Lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Artist statement

My paintings explore the experience of living without answers to existential questions: what is the nature of consciousness, what is the meaning of life, and what happens after we die? The paintings in the Cave and Carnival series express the noise, complexity, and entanglements of being alive by depicting the things that make life good in overwhelmingly maximalist, entangled compositions that suggest a state of existential unease. Blooming plants, laughing friends, and majestic animals are placed in impossible, often swirling compositions of patterns containing symbolic motifs. The Mystery series artworks speak to existential concerns directly in subject matter, addressing topics such as life and death, the cosmos, and humans’ place in nature. I employ a Baroque-inspired dramatic style: rich colors, bold lighting schemes, and symbolism. To this I add repetition and maximalist lushness. I use this sumptuously jumbled aesthetic to bewitch and confuse. My paintings incorporate a range of media: oil, digital collage of past paintings, molding paste, assemblage, and goldleaf. Although I often create new symbols, I also employ ones inspired by traditional European motifs. For example, I have used red poppies to symbolize death and saplings to symbolize birth. My nontraditional symbols have included chess pieces to symbolize human drama, medicopters symbolizing trajedy, and I have paired roses and tomatoes to suggest audience reactions to a play.

Artwork