Sabrina Piersol: The Blue of It
In the intricate tapestry of human experience, there exists an element that transcends time, connecting past, present, and future temporalities. This element is beautifully captured in The Blue of It, an exploration that delves into themes of cycles, rebirth, constancy, and the infinite track of time. This painting series by Sabrina Piersol, inspired by a plethora of influences ranging from Mary Oliver's nature-infused poetry to the ethereal music of Fleetwood Mac, invites viewers into a world where tradition and personal narrative intermingle with the natural world, creating a profound sense of continuity and resilience.
At its core, The Blue of It is a meditation on the perennial, both in the literal sense of ever-returning flowers and the metaphorical cycles of recurring human emotion and experience. The iris, a central motif in this body of work that builds on Piersol’s landscape-informed visual language, symbolizes not just the rebirth of nature each spring, but also the enduring love and resilience passed down through generations of women. These flowers, cultivated by the Sabrina’s family for over a century, serve as living heirlooms, embodying a lineage of care, hope, and vitality.
The Blue of It also draws on the poignant reflections found in Maggie Nelson's Bluets– “a lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue.” Nelson’s contemplations of the color that evokes both longing and serenity parallels Sabrina Piersol’s own use of blue to create a dream space— a twilight zone where time seems to stand still. This "blue hour" after sunset symbolizes a moment of in-between, a non-space where the boundaries between past and future blur, creating a continuum of projected memories and distant familial connections.
