Indescribable Beings
July 2016 at Tin Top Art & Handmade
Opening Reception July 8th | 6:30-8:30pm
“Indescribable Beings” is a series that's all about, well, indescribable beings: extraordinary creatures like Bigfoot and ghosts and Dopplegangers and alien visitors. Throughout the collection, the only two humans are a woman and girl (Doreen and Dorinda May, respectively) who bear a striking resemblance to one another and seem not at all surprised by, or even interested in, the mythic goings-on surrounding them. This raises the question: are any of these happenings real? Are they imagined? Are they aspects of a fractured self? The work doesn't seek to answer these questions, only to present them.The verdant flora depicted lends credence to the reality of the settings and the events taking place, while at the same time the unclassifiable nature of these plants suggests the creations of a complex and fertile imagination. I'm exploring and evoking both inner and outer spaces: imagination and landscape, created worlds and physical landmarks, the mind and the real. It's always my goal to make child-friendly work, and by this I don't mean treacly or simplistic, but dark and twisty and strange, the way a lot of childhood is, and filled with transformational imaginings: watch this blanket and chairs become a cave full of candy cane stalactites. Watch me become bigfoot.
Sabrina Barnett is an artist, writer, and sparkle enthusiast from Winchester, VA. A graduate of Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, with a degree in Creative Writing, she is still dreaming about life inside a Polly Pocket. Her work has most recently graced the cover of the "Cimmaron Review's" summer 2016 edition and been collected in zine form as "Wellsburg" by San Francisco's MunBeiBi Designs. You can visit her blog at sabrinaelisebarnett.wordpress.
