ARTIST STATEMENT SALLY RODRIGUEZ

As a person and an artist I am full of contradictions, the things that I enjoy and the things I am passionate about are worlds apart but meet every time in my work. I am completely in love with pop culture but at the same time I am passionate about information, history and tradition, which can sometime create interesting pieces. Because of my journalism background I tend to always create things with a purpose and a clear message. I believe that important subjects can effectively be assimilated by the masses if it is in video form. Some of my pieces are documentaries of very serious subjects like “Flight 587” about an airplane crash and “After College Drama” about the job crisis affecting new grads, both clear expressions of who I am.


I am most definitely a product of the MTV and the Disney generation and proud of it. A genre that influences me the most is Japanese Anime, which always surprises people but then again I am a contradiction. My favorite stories are by Hayao Miyazaki because of the fascinating characters and their massage, there is always an incredible life lesson embedded in his stories: “My Neighbor Totoro” and Anime WWII Hiroshima-Nagasaki Documentary "Grave of the Fireflies" My fascination with all things fantasy stared when I was 6-years-old with the movie Labyrinth, I was scared of the monster but could not take my eyes away from them.

My nanny was the television. I learned all great lessons from my fictional friends, I watched TV from the time I got home from school to the time I went to bed, with no restrictions. The Hollywood Technicolor era is another influence of mine I find that time incredibly romantic and happy, the music, the colors, the language is something a enjoy and only wish it came back. Color, color, color is something I love and as a child I wished to have the power to make everything around me more colorful; I feel that now I have the power to do so with all the great technology that lets us manipulate images but at the same time I am very careful of using this power because of my passion.
Candido Bido

I am passionate about social problems and politics and to me the most artistic expression of these are Spanish movies from the 30’s through 70’s. These movies speak the journalist in me, they are from a time of oppression and censorship and I am incredibly grateful for them; they were effective in every way, entertaining and educating while changing the world and freeing minds. Having no one to monitor me as a child I came upon the movie “Empire of the Sun” and documentaries from the Holocaust, these two increased the need for me to read and learn about anything historic and even at 8-years-old I wanted to be informed and see the gruesome pictures of the events of the past and the present.

My Goal is to create entertaining moving images that will educate in a fast and concise way, that will include my passion in content and what I enjoy in visuals.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is about layers and stories.I have come along distance to be a part of this lass. I started doing art in my 30's and went ot the SMFA for 15 years part-time to finally graduate.My job is as a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist.I have listened to many stories and rom my ownexperience know thw importance of telling stories.
I have worked in many kinds of printmaking. It was the beauty of adding layers that attracted me to this media..I wanted to continue to be challenged and learn so I began playing with photoshop , which led me to digital photography. After my sister's murder I began studying the Zohar, which is the mystical interpetation of the Torah. The Zohar is read on many different levels, the intellectual, the emotional, and the spiritual.This is what my work is about. My book The Dance of Spring is a story about dancing to bring spring but it takes place in front of a tree that was planted by my sister's friends in her memory and so it is also about hope.My video Lilac Sunday is about the beauty of the Arboretum but also a story of journey trying to find beauty in the world again.
My work has been influenced by many sources. Japanese woodcut prints,Anselm Keifer's work, some of my teachers at the SMFA,Walter Benjamin's writings, and the study of the Zohar.Presently I am entranced with the photographer Michael Kenna. His work is beautiful, mystical and full of meaning.
M future work will continue to use stories as metaphors. I want to continue in digital work and maybe combine my photographs and prints. I want to concentrate on black and white and macro images. I hope to continue to use video and slide shows to tell stories. After seeing the show at the Axion Gallery I know that I can stretch my creativity to do what I can't even imagine now