Sally Veach

I create paintings and drawings to explore a contemporary version of the Sublime. My body of work culminates with the idea of human hubris: the mistaken belief that the natural world can be exploited without consequences. Drawing on years of obse...

I create paintings and drawings to explore a contemporary version of the Sublime. My body of work culminates with the idea of human hubris: the mistaken belief that the natural world can be exploited without consequences. Drawing on years of observing “the great outdoors”, I employ atmospheric perspective to paint expressive, gestural strokes evoking the colors of the landscape and the energy of living things. I often juxtapose symbolic, hard-edged shapes, such as barns, houses, rectangles, and stylized patterns, against the more organic marks. These contrasting elements refer to the ecological footprint of humans as well as our separation from nature. In my most recent work, “human Nature”, I examine bygone, American eras through layers of symbolic imagery. 18th-century, chintz textile patterns are interwoven with multiple landscapes. The layers represent the indigenous state of the land, the colonial cotton trade, and the romantic idea of manifest destiny, encouraged by 19th-century Hudson River School landscape painters. Each layer addresses the memory of a time that contributes to our current cultural and physical landscape.