• “Remnants of a Summer Night”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 28x28

• “Elysian Wonder”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 24x24

• “Whimsical Melody”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 24x24

• “Fundamental Grace”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 28x28

• “Ethereal Moments”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 36x18

• “Three Rivers”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 24x48

• “River Break”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 32x32

• “Aurora's Song”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 32x32

• “River II”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal

• “River I”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 32x32

• “The Race”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 20x20

• “Somebody Else's Secret”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 30x15

• “Secrets and Lies”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 20x20

• “River III”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 36x18 ***Last of a series of 3

• “Layers of Time”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 20x20

• “Ice on Ice I”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 32x32

• “City Silence”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 24x48

• “Beautiful Deviation”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 24x48

• “Ice on Ice II”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 32x32

• “City Heat”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 30x15

• “Somebody Else's Troubles”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 24x24

• “Where We Meet”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 36x18

• “Frosted Dawn”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 24x24

• “Early Frost”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 28x28

• “Summer. Lakeside.”

  Photography based digital image Dye sublimation on metal 28x28

artist bio

Born and raised in Elgin, Illinois, Sara Risley is a working artist living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She studied photography at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas followed by a 27-year career as a portrait photographer in Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee. Since retiring, she works fulltime at her art. She is greatly influenced by the Abstract Expressionists as is evident in both her abstract photography and her paintings. She has shown in juried shows and galleries in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Florida, Rhode Island, Louisiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Missouri and her work is in private collections throughout the US. She is an avid volunteer at Literacy Services of Wisconsin where she tutors adults working toward their GEDs and is a huge fan of Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

artist statement

The most striking feature of my work is color-- bright, intense, and vibrant. In my photographic art, the color might come from the subject matter or might be revealed when layering or saturating many images. I further explore color and expression through alcohol ink paintings. Often my paintings become source material for my photographic art. In both art forms, I hope viewers will be drawn to the images or colors that appeal to them. The intensity of the color lures the viewer in to witness the often intricate details of lines and shapes within.

I approach photography in an exploratory manner. Using my camera and i-phone non-traditionally, I look for ways to make the mundane exceptional and experiment on the computer until I feel the final piece has been revealed. My alcohol ink work is a whimsical practice of both serendipity and precision.

In my abstract photography and paintings, I present non-explicit images that can initiate conversation from the literal-“What is it?” or “How did you do that?” to the internal “What do I feel about this?” or “How is it affecting me?”

I hope you enjoy my Conversations in Color, and that it provokes, inspires, and spurs thought and conversation. .

“The most astonishing possibilities remain to be discovered in the raw material of photograph" photographers "must learn to seek, not the 'picture,' not the esthetic of tradition, but the ideal instrument of expression.”

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy


Website: http://sararisley.com/home.html
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sararisleyart/?hl=en

proficiencies