Sophia Van Dyke

Lives and works in Marshall, CA, USA

Artist statement

The themes I explore in my work are natural cycles; birth and death, seasonal change, dawn and twilight. I am also informed by mythical, religious and spiritual symbols. My work evokes a sense of spaciousness, calm, chaos and mystery– and reflects the process of untangling how I am affected by the presence of the great beauty and sorrow that exists on this planet. The content of my work exists on the axis of grief, loss, and death, and revolves around what we can learn from them. By holding a lens to the intricacies of what happens to our bodies, minds, and spirits when we encounter these realities, I attempt to open a doorway to experience life in a more fully realized way. Utilizing a combination of representational and abstracted forms, I am interested in drawing attention to the interplay between what is and what we perceive. The often straightforward quality of linework and form reflects a documentation, which in combination with the ambiguity of the subject, creates a potentially unsettling tension. The medium of printmaking presents an opportunity to explore these concepts physically. A print is not strictly an original, it is an imprint of a matrix that is no longer there. A print is what is left behind, the impact of a process, which leaves an impression on the world. Since the process of printmaking is one based principally on the concept of loss, it presents unique and sometimes subtle ways to interact with it. References to the natural world, both in form and...

Artwork