Interpretations of Being
Sarah Sands Phillips and J. Ashley Wilson-Vincer
December 5 - January 9, 2007
Reception: December 9th, 2006, 6-8p


J. Ashley Wilson-Vincer, (left) Sky High and (right) Awakening, oil on canvas, 2006

J. Ashley Wilson-Vincer
As an introvert, my artwork stems from the need to express my own psychological and emotional life that remains bottled up within. When constructing images, my concentration relies on reflecting thoughts regarding personal experiences and the world around me.
The notion of identity has overtly been used throughout art history with several different approaches, most frequently in the depiction of self as human beings. My artwork however takes this notion of the human condition and interprets it through depictions of various trees.
Trees can be compared to the human race on two separate levels. First off, both forms of life come in a variety of different shapes, sizes, and colours. Secondly, just as we (humans) have our own unique fingerprint to distinguish ourselves separate from others, trees have their own personal mark that lies in their growth. Therefore as the DNA structure cannot be exactly alike in two individuals, no two trees can take on precisely the same shape, bend in exactly the same manner, or have identical colours, textures, or markings. It is this individuality of the tree that I find most appealing, as each—like every human being—has its personal story to tell. For that reason, the intent of my tree images is to question the modes through which other people form their identities.

(Jillian) Ashley Wilson-Vincer is currently a fourth year Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) student majoring in printmaking and painting. She was born and raised in the little town of Trenton a short drive from Kingston. Ashley enjoys relaxing and spending a lot of time outdoors watching the many different changes that life can bring. After graduation she plans to attend teachers college and with any luck become as wonderful a teacher those in her past. She wants to educate the young minds of today and prepare them to be the next great artists of tomorrow.


Sarah Sands Phillips, Skin and Detachment, oil on canvas, 2006

Sarah Sands Phillips
I have been using psychology, researching emotional disorders and depression to inform my paintings in the exhibition. In these works I show a concern for people affected by different emotional conditions. An illness that is often hidden, that comes to shape and preoccupy ones mental and physical being.

The aim of my work is to capture intensity in feeling, evoking states of removal, emotional turmoil and numbness as associated with depression and its varying degrees of severity. Interpretations of the onset of fear, suffocation, panic, and at the opposite end of the spectrum to execute work void of urgency; to paint the nature of a depressed episode as sometimes awfully paralyzed, numb, helpless. I needed to understand the condition and the mentality, to be better equipped to help close friends who have battled similar wars against themselves.

Sarah Sands Phillips was born in Toronto, Ontario. She is a Queen’s student in her fourth year of the Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) program, specializing in painting. Currently her work is developing around the idea of emotional disorders, emotion has preoccupied the content of much of her art. After graduation Sarah looks forward to graduate school and pursuing a career as a professional artist.