“For the past 20 years my work has been engaged in an exploration of color and repetition. I have always considered myself a painter, but recently new materials, often with a meaningful history of their own, have found their way into the work. The idea of visually integrating opposing forces through materials and color feels relevant to my own desire to make sense of the world today. The act of repetition becomes a meditation, a form of perseverance and a measure of my own state of mind within our shifting and elusive times.
“I have been incorporating gunpowder and crushed glass into many of the new paintings. I find the material of gunpowder visually beautiful, yet we are all aware of its potential to destroy — or to protect. It is a material that speaks to both fear and safety. Broken glass is a material most people try to avoid. Yet glass is used on roads and airport runways to signal directions, boundaries, and warn of danger. Other works in this exhibition incorporate materials that have a more personal history. For example, the work Inherited Gestures, is made with yarn my mother unraveled from artworks she had woven in the 1980’s. I hand dyed each strand and arranged them to evoke the energy of a torso with arms extended. I wanted to honor the history of the material and the energy she put into being a creative artist.
“Living through the past few years of political, environmental, and pandemic turmoil created a desire to address ideas of how to persevere in an unwelcoming and challenging world. Allowing new materials to enter my painting practice has opened a door toward a more personal form of connection.” — Petra Sairanen
Petra Sairanen is a Finnish-born artist living and working in Portland, Oregon. She earned a BFA from the University of New Hampshire, a Post-baccalaureate from Brandeis University and MFA from Boston University. Numerous public and private collections house her works, including the Portable Works Collection (City of Portland, Oregon), North Shore Children’s Hospital (Salem, Massachusetts), Children’s Hospital of Boston (Massachusetts), Astra Zeneca Pharmaceutical Company (Newton, Massachusetts), and the Boston University Fuller Collection. Sairanen teaches painting and design at Portland Community College- Rock Creek and is the Director of the Helzer Gallery.