serena saunders – transcendent artistry
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photo by steed media service |
Artist, Poet and Owner of Passion Art Designs
While visitors were exposed to dozens of nationally known artists at the Philadelphia International Art Expo, Serena Saunders’s paintings stood out like a lighthouse beacon cutting through inky darkness. Her unique and captivating Golden Girl Collection, which depicts images of ethnic females and their natural hair, oozes with creativity.
“One day, I thought about the kinkiness of natural hair and how it curled a certain way,” says Saunders, explaining how she came up with the concept for the collection. “The hair is actually a poem … Each painting illustrates not only a woman, but also a poem. And then each poem connects each woman in the series. It tells one long story.”
In addition to adding to her body of work, the collection also added to Saunders’s confidence. She felt like she was dipped in gold after she took a fateful traipse through Gallery Row, her favorite gallery, this past spring. On an impulse, she took her work to the curator, seeking inclusion. After looking at it for only five minutes, the curator accepted Saunders as a new artist in residence.
“I was extremely happy,” she recalls. “It’s like having a demo and getting a record deal. It’s about more people seeing your work, a different market seeing your work, private collectors seeing your work … It’s just like adding another job to your resume. It’s wonderful.”
It’ll be even better if Saunders’ next dream comes true, which is to be based in Los Angeles and show her work in Europe.
“I tell people, ‘It’s like the ceilings in L.A. are higher — the sky is further away from you. It makes you feel that anything is possible,’ ” says Saunders. – terry shropshire
Saunders’s work can be viewed at www.serenasart.com.
