Sachi Rome
The Kitchen Table

Media: acrylic , paper on wooden cradle
Size: 14" x 16" x 1"
$800

Artist Statement:
The work was created as a way to deal with ongoing stress and tension at the current uncertain times. When first placed on lock down I experience overwhelming anxiety. I I began experimenting with decorative papers and layering and printing as a response to being fearful of going out to purchase new materials and having to explore and revisit old work and abstracted backgrounds and decorative papers that I had already in my supplies. I had to recontextualize the work as I did not have readily available access to new watercolor paper and other supplies I began to explore collage and mixed media creation. The collage work is created first by creating abstracted papers through Gelli printing and monoprint. Handmade papers are integrated into layers that create abstracted figures which represent the ancestors. Each image is built upon with layers of paper and texture. The oil paintings integrate found objects, hymnal pages and decorative papers to create the figure. They are Portraits of The in Between: A Narrative of black faces from in-between spaces in time, near and distant. The In Between represents the cosmic plane the spirits of our ancestors reside in; It is the spiritual plane between here and eternity, where there is no rest, only an aching to belong and come back to be remembered.

They are portraits of ancestors (africans of the diaspora), who are seeking to have new life and audience, within contemporary spaces.They are seeking new memory and presence,(to be received in a new space and accepted into a new space--historical they were not accepted /they were demeaned and minimized). They seek this, among those still able to breathe new life into the lines of life they had yet to write. Ancient African religions believed ancestors deliver to us power and insight but must be remembered to do so. The work answers the call of the ancestor into our time and place. They offer the community strength and wisdom in times of struggle, through their memory. The work also gives viewers a different lens to view the elegance and grace of the black body in all its multifaceted shapes

Biography

Sachi Rome is a painter, muralist and mixed media artist who is from Atlanta, Georgia, who has been an artist and educator for more than 22 years years. She has helped shape the minds and creative talent of students within the Atlanta public School system as well as bringing art to the local community. Sachi has completed numerous public art projects around the city such as the Juneteenth Flatiron mural, Cascade bike rack, utility boxes for the CIty of Atlanta and Old Fourth Ward, the Art on the Beltline mural along the westside trail. She has been mentioned in The New York Times, Forbes, as well as most recently in Creative Loafing. She was a 2018 inaugural Garden Fellow for Tila Studios and is a current TCP Fellow for the 2020 /2022 artist residency cycle.

She briefly studied under the critically acclaimed African American artist Louis Delsarte. His influence is reflected in her focus on color and impressionistic texture. Sachi’s works seek to change the social history behind who is captured and immortalized through portraiture. The current direction of her work looks at the connection between history, time, memory and past lives.

https://www.sachistudioart.com/