SonyArletta

SonyArletta is a local artist currently residing in Escondido, Ca. She completed her BA in Fine Arts from Mississippi State University. Prior to that she attended USIU, School of Performing and Visual Arts, majored Advertising Design, and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising where she received an AA in Fashion Design.

Her work has been featured in many shows, both solo and group, local and out of state, including the self produced show "In Search of the Divine Feminine" held at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

"For me the figure is the ultimate artistic tool of expression. The figure is a familiar reference, with a built in dictionary-gestures and expressions equal certain meanings. The figure can evoke a variety of ideas simply from being "created"-even if the artist's intention was to create only one. A piece that uses the figure is partially dependent on the viewer's emotional, cultural, or historical reference points for impact. The meaning of a piece will always shift or change completely from person to person. This uncertainty of how a painting is going to be perceived is one of the most intriguing aspects of figurative art.

My work is not about glorifying the physical properties of the figure, but in fact how those physical properties are simply tools to define, reflect, and illustrate the true beauty that lives beyond, beneath, and unanchored by the physical characteristics of the flesh.

My current projects reflect my love of black and white images-both in photography and pencil drawings-and my translation of them onto the painted canvas. There is a certain amount of inherent drama in black and white images. Perhaps due to the connotations of the colors themselves-for example: good and evil, clean and dirty, right and wrong, not to mention the "in-betweeness" of the color gray that is often found in images that claim to be black and white. This exploration allows me to take the viewer (and myself) beyond the meaning inherent in "color" and perhaps place them outside their comfort zone where the sense is derived from the image alone. However, because black and white (and gray) has its own connotations there will be some form of color subtext imposed upon the painting...

...and so, the meaning of the piece will always shift from person to person. This is one of the most intriguing aspects of my art."