Sydney Cohen
Artist Statement
When I paint, I imagine struggling to explain the ambiguities of life to an artificial intelligence who wants to understand things like romance, hobbies, awkwardness, and friendship. There is so much that my robot friend doesn’t get.
These phenomenology lessons play out in color and shape and paint body, and the building of a painting over time. Packets of color stand in for thoughts, moments, walls, pillows, affection, embarrassment, words inadvertently said in the shower, various barometers and many, many imperfect connections.
I am most excited when my attempts to sort experience opens to the unexpected and space unfolds in surprising ways.
While At Headlands
Here are the things I am thinking about, inside and outside the studio:
-What is left when the sea comes? Making houses from what is left.
-Tents on the beach- but putting up a tent with an inept person. Also painting where pretending that putting up the tent, or love nest is easy and free.
-Larger paintings, more weather.
