Is it OK if I Sit Here with You, 16" x 16"

Oil on Wood Panel, 16 x 16 inches.

"Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, we did a lot of camping as kids. It is a tradition we carry on with our own children. The transient nature of the parents setting up a tent, the awereness of the weather, packing up at the end of the weekend and how we pass through existance in these beautiful summer spaces is intriquing.  Mom camped with us this past summer to have an adventure with the grandkids. So many stories of the past shared around the campfire! She has not gone camping in over 20 years and the chance she’ll sleep on the ground in a tent ever again is unlikely. Time doesn’t wait for anyone. In this moment from our summer, I was attracted to the shifting light of the space as the evening was setting in.  The distant wildfire smoke made a dusty glow on the horizon.

My work explores memory and change through imagery and the physical act of painting. The surface aggressively develops, pulling at threads of setting, figure and narrative gleaned from family photographs. It ages. The painted surface is aggressively worked in layers of added color only to be scraped away to abstractly reveal painting action from below, obliterating what was present. Fresh mark-making, born anew."  

Sarah Dillon is originally from Yakima, WA, and now based in Lake Tapps, WA. She received her MFA in painting from Boston University in 2004. Noted exhibitions include Gallery XIV in Boston, which was featured in The Wall Street Journal, Artscope Magazine, MSNBC, Imagine Arts, and Boston Globe. Sarah has exhibited work at the Washington State Convention Center, Blackfish Gallery, Portland, OR, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA, Brooklyn Art Library, NY, Western Bridge Gallery, Seattle, WA, Oxbow Gallery, Northampton, MA, Untitled Space Gallery, NY, Center on Contemporary and Political Art, DC, and Cave Gallery, Vancouver, WA to name a few. Sarah has created commissioned work for the Pike Place Market Foundation and is included in private collections around the country.