Eric Sanders That’s Not Snow…It’s Ash Manhattan Beach, California
“Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one.” – Stella Adler
Artist Statment: Recent historic maelstroms, including the coronavirus pandemic, the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol, and Congress’s failure to impeach Donald Trump, inspired the paintings in this exhibition. Despite the difficulty of this time we are going through, there is always hope. Creating these paintings was a way to put form to emotions, transforming the trauma of our times into some form of redemption. My paintings express the exuberance and power of our collective will to overcome hardships, the creative act as an assertion of optimism, and the promise that this too shall pass. The energy in the paintings is the dynamic expression of life force and the power of our imaginations to create order out of chaos.
In The Cowardly 43, I was making a connection to the senators who refused to vote against Trump, despite the havoc that he wreaked upon our Democracy and the mob that he helped incite to breach the Capitol.
They Told Me You Were Harmless suggests the face of a demon or Medusa. The title refers to how Trump and many others played down the seriousness of Covid-19 purely for political motives, with tragic consequences.
When All Hell Breaks Loose is full of dynamic movement. The intensity I felt about the state of the world is communicated through explosive colors and implosive gestures. The black passages of paint are like storm clouds or smoke from fires below darkening the sky.
Waiting in Line For Salvation is about the frustration and anxiety of waiting for the Covid-19 vaccine. The emotional strain of worrying about getting infected and the many ways that the virus has constricted our lives has taken a serious toll.
More at: www.studiosanders.com
Eric Sanders (b. 1963 in Philadelphia, PA) is a painter based in Manhattan Beach, California. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Sanders learned to paint from his father, who was an accomplished amateur painter. Sanders painted throughout his childhood and into early adulthood when he focused his attention on establishing and building a career as an entrepreneur. After thirty years in business, Sanders sold his company in 2014 and returned to making art. Since then, Sanders’s work has been exhibited in two one-person exhibitions, and he has participated in group shows, art fairs, and benefit auctions.
