An Introduction to Michael Sacramento's Urban Inspired Series

Here are a few words from our artist, Michael Sacramento, regarding his current series: Urban Inspired

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My collaged paintings are created with fragments of images, objects, textures and colors that are inspired by my day to day observations - from street scenes, billboards and posters to often overlooked surfaces, birds and architectural elements. The process of collecting and finding inspiration from these visual cues, then using them to create a new visual experience, is my choice of intuitive self expression.

Each painting begins on the computer, where I rummage through digital images that I have collected from my wanderings about town and life. My favorite images are of various surfaces (like asphalt, wood and metal), street birds and graffiti, and “magazine” portraits. When an image captures my attention, I use a program to cut, crop and change the colors. Then I place the image in an inventory that I use for the actual painting.

The process of creating the physical painting begins with a surface that I prepare with a combination of metal, plywood, pumice gel, acrylic sheets and acrylic medium. This combination is inspired by the aesthetics of functional elements from city buildings and streets. Then, I paint them with washes of acrylic to further emphasize the formalistic qualities of the surface. Once the surface is prepared, I begin to transfer and paint my digital imagery through various techniques. Most times, I paint focal images on plexiglass and lay them a few millimeters over the surface. The result is an amalgam of my various artistic interests.

These Urban Inspired paintings are a body of work where I incorporate various inspirations into one. This method of integrating seemingly independent images, materials and surfaces is my offering to the world. It is my fullest and most honest self expression.

Consequently this new body of work can be perceived as an analog to the human experience and how independent entities can be interdependent to create a higher, more textured and layered existence.