Kerri Sabine-Wolf

Artist Statement and other interesting tidbits



ARTIST STATEMENT

Kerri Sabine-Wolf is a Contemporary Realist painter living and teaching in Orange County, Ca. Her paintings are predominately oil, but she often falls back to her passion for drawing, it’s all about the mark making. Frequently she layers in drawing techniques or leaves the original drawing exposed to reveal the history of the painting. She enjoys working with the human form, as well as, introducing other animals or objects into her compositions to suggest a small part of a much bigger story.

Upcoming Exhibitions and Highlights

June 2024
"More Disruption: Representational Art in Flux".
|http:/www.oma-online.org|Oceanside Museu of Art|
Juried by John Seed, Aleah Chapin and Timothy Robert Smith
June 8-September 15, 2024

April 2024
The Other Art Fair, Barker Hanger, Santa Monica, CA

October 2023
"Kitchen Window Drama Theater and Other Avian Tales"
Solor Show
Coastline Gallery
Coastline Community College
Newport Beach, CA 92663

April 2023
"Perceive Me" exhibition at Mesa College Art Gallery in San Diego on April 15, 2023. This was an amazing project, and I was so grateful to be involved.

November 2023
"Duets With"
Curated by Tony Pinto
Coastline Gallery
Newport Beach, CA 92663

"100 Square Inches"
3 Squarer Art Gallery
2415 Donella Ct. Ste 110
Fort Collins, CO. 80524

December 2022
"Crocker Kingsley 2022"
Juried by Emma Saperstein Chief Curator SLOMA
Blue Line Arts
405 Vernon St. Suite 100
Roseville, CA. 95678

Questions from The "Ides of March" on line exhibition at Coastline Art Gallery.
Ides of March

1. What is the most memorable experience in your professional career?

Several years ago, I remember attending and Artist Talk at The Loft at Liz’s Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition was the “Guns” which I was a part of. I, like all the artists had deeply personal reasons why we made the gun related work that was on exhibit. When it was my turn to speak, I found myself so moved by all the other artists words that I could barely speak. I cried. I felt arms around me, and I was being hugged by people I did not even know. I found the whole experience quite emotional and moving. Even though our experiences and motivations were quite different we found connections through our stories that brought us all together.



2. You get to have dinner with anyone in you field alive or dead, who would it be? What is on the menu?

I would want to have dinner with Jay DeFao. She was an artist in the Bay Area (1950’s -1980’s) who was closely associated with the Abstract Expressionists. She was known for using materials based on her love of the material and not the traditional hierarchy of artists materials. She liked to experiment and transform her materials or subjects. She didn’t practice realism as an art form, but it was there in her drawings and collages. It seemed like many pieces started from something, then she transformed the subject. Sometimes you could still see the original source, most times not. I think I liked and still like that approach because I have been really examining mark making in my own work for a long time. I 1st saw her work at a retrospective exhibition in Berkley in the late 80’s. I was immediately drawn to her work and wanted to learn as much as I could about her. Sadly, she had passed away prior to the exhibition. But what a legacy of work she has left for us to enjoy and be inspired by.

As for dinner I think I would prefer some type of take out so we could go back to her studio and I could watch her work. Since this is my fantasy, she would allow that. I would have loved to collaborate with her. Especially on some of her drawings. I would have loved to see her process and the evolution of a drawing like “The Eyes.”


3. What was the best advice you were ever given?

When I was in graduate school at The Claremont Graduate University, Roland Reiss told me “I don’t believe you”. I was startled and shocked. I didn’t know what to say. I had to think about it for a while. What I realized was he was commenting on what I thought I was doing vs. what I was actually doing. I tell my students now, it’s a matter of intension vs. perception. He really made me think about my process and what was important to me. I learned to edit, and the power editing can have over my work and how people view it.


4. What has been the biggest let down in your career?

This is a hard one, because there is a difference between what is meant to be and not meant to be. There have always been obstacles, unemployment, money, education, family, children, health, death, recessions, pandemics, etc…. I would have to say that the shutting down of the world in 2020 might be a great candidate for the biggest let down. My family and friends all had great losses and hardship, but personally, and even selfishly my art career was on a good track starting in 2020, and the whole thing was derailed. For an artist momentum is important. When you have many irons in the fire it gives you focus and determination to get projects complete. Networking is at a high, connections are being made. More opportunities are being made. Then everything shut down and I personally had to refocus on teaching rather then making art. So, all that possibility didn’t happen. I don’t believe those connections for 2020 were completely lost. They just got put on hold. The fear would be “out of site, out of mind”. Opportunity being lost because we just had to move on.


5. If you were given the opportunity to participate in any artist residency program, where would you go?

It has been so long since I went anywhere. Even before the pandemic travel was at a minimum due to health issues in my family. So, to say I would go away and just focus on me feels quite selfish. So, I will be selfish. I think I would want to be inspired by the old and the new. I would want to go someplace both rural and cosmopolitan. I traveled to Italy as a young adult and really fell in love with the beauty and texture of cities like Florence. To study at a school like The Florence Academy of Art would be a dream. I would want to study both a classical approach to the body as well the use of more experimental and expressive mediums. You can never stop learning!