SHERRY MILLS / Artist Statement

 

I am thrilled by matters of contrast – From walks through the damp, frighteningly still forests of Vermont that accompanied my upbringing, to the walks of concrete eye candy and audio madness that accompany my adult life in Manhattan. It seems no surprise that my work strives to find and fabricate an ordered chaos, a contemplative rest inside disruption.

 

THE CLOSER LOOK

I believe the question is not “What are you looking at?” but “What is your perspective?” In an age of image manipulation, I believe the eye for finding raw or unconventional beauty trumps the eye for reworking something into beauty and my intent is to retrain the viewer's eye to observe this quiet brilliance in which we are immersed. Drips and splats could be national landmarks, if we let them be.

 

From billboards to box art, I employ formats that have the power to induce a closer look. That which is gigantic demands attention. That which makes you squint demands attention. I believe the overlooked details of our landscapes, both physical and emotional, need more praise. Paying attention may be popularized by this act of blowing up and shrinking down the beautiful, yet unseen.

 

A CLOSER NY

A CLOSER NY offers an abstract art view of the undiscovered beauty of New York’s streets and sidewalks. All of the photographs in this collection are close-ups of things found simply as they exist on the city’s byways and buildings. Nothing has been staged.

 

BOX ART

Years of keeping my passion for dollhouse miniatures, clippings, and found objects bottled up while I brought my photographic vision to life has me delightfully exploding that passion into assemblage boxes, as both person-specific commissions and autobiographical works.

 

When you are the subject of my commission, I create a concentrated landscape of your personality, daily pleasures, memories, challenges, and dreams according to my perspective. My intention is that your box may serve as a fresh, altered window into yourself, transporting you to a nonverbal place of cathartic self-appreciation every time you stand before it.

 

What I seek to induce throughout all of my work are those moments of “OH” –moments of silent rock and roll; moments when a thrown straw makes magical sense; moments when a doll by a miniature couch unexpectedly opens a floodgate of packed emotion, and you watch it flow out as unbridled imagination, something mysterious yet celebratory; moments that become tools…Tools for living beyond the confines of our time.

 

And I live for sharing – not bottling – whatever I may be, or whatever I may represent.