About my Practice
As an artist, I am constantly seeking to explore questions of memory, identity, and one’s relation to those and the world around them. My artistic practice is deeply grounded in spirituality and introspection, and I find that much of my source material, if not from my experiences, comes from the incessant flow of well, me, that lies within me. I am constantly trying to provide my viewers not with entertainment or beauty, but with maximalist sensory experiences that induce the emotions I conjure, sit with, and channel into the piece. I am chasing art that is alive; that eats, inhales, and exhales a universal narrative, something so infinite and unifying that each viewer finds themselves pulled to a staunch memory of their own.
I am fascinated with finding and bringing to life every color I find existing within a singular one. Patterns and repetition are two things sure to always catch my eye as I navigate the world around me, and they hold quite the impact on my work: the way your eye is pulled back and forth across a cityscape by color, reflection, or geometry, or the way bumper stickers compile on top of a bench you eat your daily lunch on. It’s all collage to me. Another concept I find fascinating and seek to replicate in my work is that of decay: the natural wear and tear we subject the objects and environment we interact with to; the impact we leave on our spaces, and — in turn — the impact they leave on us; the concept of something being “lived”. I find traveling and interacting with strangers to be great creative fuel as well– the idea of two dots bopping around the same massive square just to briefly come in contact with one another, appreciating, and then continuing on, carrying a bit of the other dot with them. The paradoxical smallness of our world that exists within its immensity; the idea that life is, in fact, long; the overlooked experiences and emotions that unify rather than separate us– the things that make us human; and then, the things that separate us. This is what inspires me.
Sanibel Betts 