Sandy Searcy

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Digital Expressionism The Art Of Sandy Searcy

By Anne K. Anthony

Sandy Searcy is a contemporary illustrator, abstract, digital artist, and photographer. Her works integrate photography and digital painting to produce lively compositions that convey her worldview. Closely examining Searcy’s artworks reveals that her art is inspired by two of the most famous 20th Century movements - abstract expressionism and pop art. Like Jason Pollock’s abstract expressionism artworks, Searcy’s digital paintings feature colorful and highly expressive line work, combining bold and thin lines to convey the artist’s imagination. Pop art influence is also visible in featuring human subjects. In these, the artist posterizes her subjects to facilitate the addition of colorful overlays. The result is highly elaborate compositions that convey the subjects being animated.

The art of Sandy Searcy features diverse formal elements. However, color is the single-most-important visual element using which the artist attaches aesthetic beauty to her compositions. As a result, the artist integrates a wide variety of colors, placing little significance on the startling effect of juxtaposing random hues across her pictorial compositions. Nonetheless, the vibrancy of her compositions evokes the emotion of excitement, testifying to the happy mood with which she composes her digital paintings. A unique aspect of Sandy’s work is the idea of flattening her digital creations to reinforce their expressive attributes. Unlike conventional art techniques, where artists carefully divide their canvases to separate foreground from background elements, Sandy opts to ad new layers of lines to older layers. As a result, she presents the viewer with an opportunity to celebrate art for its aesthetic rather than functional purpose and the hidden meanings embedded in the image.