Sandy Young
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The Palimpsest body of work is mixed media image-based art with one or more kiln-formed glass overlays.
PALIMPSEST
(the second “p” is silent)
Definition:
(1) Writing material (as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased.
(2) Something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface. Something that has many obvious stages or levels of meaning, development or history.
The word “palimpsest” comes from Latin palimpsēstus from Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος (palímpsestos, “scratched or scraped again”), literally meaning “scraped clean and used again”.
I find resonance with the second definition of “palimpsest” –where I am creating “…something that has many layers or aspects beneath the surface… many obvious stages or levels of meaning…” To that, I add dimensionality.
I weave imagery into multiple planes in order to create a feeling of dimensionality. This aspect of my work also serves as a metaphor for the multiple dimensions of life experience. Markings and handwriting symbolically represent tracings of internal experience. Distressed and fragmented layers allude to the passage of time. As with memory, one moment is erased, while the next is painted, leaving only impressions of the first.
I am often inspired by turn-of-the-century photographs, handwritten documents and time-worn objects. I see these as evidence of someone or something gone before, and use them to convey a timelessness. Mixing old with new, combining disparate images and elements, I seek to create harmony and express a connectivity among all.
BEING Series:
Mixed media work that explores the idea of “Being” and “Being Human”.
This series of work, ranging from abstract to conceptual, whimsical to zen, all feature one or more antique porcelain figures as representative of the human form.
My work is often psychological so I was inspired to use these imperfect forms (broken antique porcelain figures) to symbolically represent the imperfect human being. I am exploring ideas of connection, humanity and spirituality, including aspirations, foibles and imperfections. The artworks with kiln-formed glass overlay invite the viewer to peer into an inner dimension to find traces and symbols of the inner world, a concept that forms the central idea behind my work.
Now broken and stained, the porcelain figures used in these artworks were once popular toys and charms. These “frozen Charlottes”, as they were called, were common in the 1860’s as play toys and bath toys, and were often baked into desserts as a surprise gift. Factories would bury the defective units, and only later would the buried units be discovered. The porcelain figures used here were excavated from the grounds of a factory in Limbach, Germany, and date to the early 1860’s. They had lay buried for over a century.
