Artist Statement
I create large-scale self-portrait drawings using pencil on paper. These drawings are meticulously-rendered, elaborately staged and illustrative works that use dramatic and expressive poses as well as visceral symbolism as a conduit for both personal and universal narratives.
I am passionate about the physical act of mark-making with traditional drawing pencils; for me this is a meditative process grounded in the sensory experience of feeling the point of a pencil moving upon the surface of paper.
My pencil drawings are inspired by Surrealism. However, unlike the Surrealists, my drawings are more consciously and deliberately composed. I incorporate expressive figurative gestures as well as symbolism, aiming to keep the message and meaning of my artworks ambiguous. This allows me to explore deeply personal narratives that simultaneously suggest more universal political and social issues.
Truthfully, I create my self-portrait drawings out of a compulsion to document and compartmentalize both fleeting thoughts and emerging prescience. Although some of my drawings can be construed as social commentaries, I do not view art as a catalyst for the transformation of society or as having the ability in itself to make social change. Rather I see art as a reflection of society which we can use as a means to identify and delineate our own beliefs and views, our own stories, and personal histories. By using the traditional medium of pencils on paper, I purposefully disengage from technology to find a more fundamental and corporeal means to explore private subjects and thoughts; by the use of the self-portrait, I am seeking a candid and sometimes awkward intimacy with my drawings.
About the Artist
Sarah Petruziello was born in Athens, Georgia. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the University of Georgia in 1994 and dual Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Graphic Design and Drawing and Painting from the University of Georgia in 1991, graduating with Summa cum laude honors. She currently lives in South Orange, New Jersey.
Sarah is the recipient of New Jersey State Council of the Arts 2022 and 2006 Artist Fellowships for Works on Paper as well as a Grant for Working Artists from the George Sugarman Foundation in 2007.