| A lifetime before I moved to hipster-central, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I was a sorority girl at the University of Michigan. The salacious underbelly of this time-honored community still continues to fascinate me. This world of friendship, camaraderie, sex and violence from my past became a kind of springboard for my career as a serious artist. I resolved a problem that I came across a few years ago during the execution of one of these sorority-inspired pieces by making my own frames for them. |  |
Sarah Bereza
A lifetime before I moved to hipster-central, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I was a sorority girl at the University of Michigan. The salacious underbelly of this time-honored community still continues to fascinate me. This world of friendship, camaraderie, sex and violence from my past became a kind of springboard for my career as a serious artist. I resolved a problem that I came across a few years ago during the execution of one of these sorority-inspired pieces by making my own frames for them. In this case, the painting needed to be oval in order to emphasize “the commissioned portrait,” what one might find over a mantle or in a drawing room, and, therefore, it needed a frame. I enjoyed how it made the piece look quite formal, even though the sorority girl in the painting had a contorted, porn-like, orgasmic face.
I have often painted myself into these scenarios, as I am not outside the realm of critique. In one of them, I am in a vicious pillow fight, in another I am in a situation where I am getting emotionally trashed by a guy and, in another, I am making my “o-face” among my sisters in a sorority composite—the very first of the series. From this original notion, I have moved on to paint portraits of my friends in similar situations. These women do not play the victim card, though.
What lies underneath is a strength of character and energy, as they seem to stand up against anything that I throw at them. On the same token, the stronger women are not without their imperfections. I employ these contrasting forces to tell a story beyond one simple statement, as I am interested in the tension of combining opposites—vanity/holiness, pride/shame, sacred/profane, formal/unconventional and the traditions of polar opposites. This is also where the addition of the detailed, albeit a little clunky, 18th century-inspired frames come into play with their informal contemporary portraits. But, these women are not meant to be portraits in the classical sense. I consider them more so as representations of an emotion or as individual manifestations of women I have been around, known and loved.
