sporadically present
by Featured ARtist S.J.
S.J., sporadically present, watercolor on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
Sporadically present
S.J. | DEC 2024 | Issue 40
I am a painter who uses watercolor to personify my struggles and journey of my mental health. I started using paint as a form of journaling because I missed having a creative outlet to voice my inner turmoil.
When I sit down to paint, I take out my paper, watercolor paint, water, and brushes I’m going to use. I don’t get started right away. I sit there staring at my paper for a good thirty minutes. After wasting time just staring at my paper, I finally sketch a face that’s inspired by how I’m feeling at that moment or another time in my life. The sketches that I draw are typically contour drawings because I love the unpredictability of it. For the most part I leave it as is, but I have a few moments of redoing something I don’t quite like.
I love the wet on wet technique. To me it just makes the process more fun with less control of where the paint goes. It’s funny that I think about what palette to use when I use similar colors each time: pinks, purples, browns, and sometimes red. Doing the same palette should bore me, but I love those colors the best.
I do a couple of layers of paint and sometimes I don’t even wait for each layer to dry. It could be the technique I wanted to do, me being impatient, or both.
S.J., through the empty eyes, watercolor on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
S.J., just a wither away, watercolor on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
S.J., wearing it on display, watercolor on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
I painted on my way up during my hypomanic period. I felt so elated, jovial, and I was racing trying to finish this because I had a hundred different thoughts spiraling in my head.
S.J., on my way up, watercolor on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
Cedar Rapids-based painter S.J. has been in love with art most of her life. She started tapping into her admiration for art more seriously in 2022. S.J. has tried different media from graphite to acrylic paint, but she instantly fell in love with watercolor. Using watercolor as the basis of her portrait work helped her put a face to the expressions in her mind. Her watercolor portraits are a visual representation of her struggles with her disorders and just a peek of what it’s like to be in her world.