Ecstasy in the Details

Euphoria: Whether in dreams or awake, Fay Sciarra’s paintings exude a ‘Joie de Vivre,’ the theme of her new show at the Arts Council of Princeton.

By: Ilene Dube

TimeOFF photos/Mark Czajkowski
Artist Fay Sciarra, above, with her reverse painting on glass of a Hopewell farm.
Ms. Sciarra paints on the back of the glass, right, but it is viewed from the front, so everything has to be done backward.

   Take the dreams of Frida Kahlo, mix in the patterns of Henri Matisse and add the colors of Milton Avery. Now, make the subject contemporary domestic life, throw in some whimsy for good measure, and paint it on found objects from the early 20th century — you’ve entered the world of Fay Sciarra.
   This world takes shape in the treehouse studio over the garage behind her Lawrenceville home. Ascend to the top of the stairs and there she is with her easel, her work table, her clawfoot tub, her layers of patterns upon patterns — leopardskin, zebra stripes, details of oriental rugs, textiles, woven wicker, diamonds.
   Standing beneath the white birch beams that support the gabled roof, Ms. Sciarra, with red hair and freckles, exudes the magical charm of her paintings.
   Ms. Sciarra gets her inspiration from the same place other artists do. "It comes from an instinctual place — you just know what will work," she says.
   A former TV producer, Ms. Sciarra has been painting for about 10 years. When her mother, also an artist, died, she left her painting supplies to Ms. Sciarra. A year later, Ms. Sciarra taught herself to paint, selling her very first attempt.
   Since then she has exhibited and sold paintings all over the country, including New York and Philadelphia. A show of her work will be at the Arts Council of Princeton May 13-30. The theme is "Joie de Vivre."
   A magnificent magnolia is blooming through two windows of the studio, illuminating the space with a pink glow. In preparation for the show, Ms. Sciarra is at work on a picture of a Hopewell farm painted in reverse on glass. She photographed the farm from many angles, and the 11-by-17 inch color enlargements are spread out on the floor. Ms. Sciarra is painting the scene on the back of an old paned window she picked up at a flea market. The scene she creates is much more full of color and life than the original, with a pinkish-bluish sky and a silo made of purple blocks. The barn’s roof is a bright turquoise and lemon-yellow hay bales dot the landscape while lambs graze in the foreground.
   "I love to paint lambs," says Ms. Sciarra, who is pursuing a new direction in her work, using less detail and symbolism.
   "It’s more about capturing emotion through color and composition," she says. "Milton Avery, known for being an amazing colorist, has influenced me. His work is very spare, with a poetic feeling. Because of the nature of working on glass, the work I’m doing now is more graphic. I’m trying to capture a peaceful feeling by using color against color rather than pattern against pattern."
   Fans of Fay Sciarra need not worry that she is giving up her signature style. "After I do an intricate piece, I need to let the pendulum swing," she says. The pieces for this show will meet the joyous theme, but Ms. Sciarra still returns to what she calls her "darker side."
   "I read a book about Frida Kahlo three years ago," she says. "What she did was so courageous. She ripped her heart out of her chest and laid it raw for the world to see. All of her work was about her own personal journey, and that encouraged me to be personal with my work."

	Ms. Sciarra painted "The Lake," above, on a Victorian mirror frame after watching her son, Sam, and his cousins leap off a dock at a house the family rented in Maine.
	TimeOFF photos/Mark Czajkowski		At left, Terhune Orchards is painted on a biscuit tin.

   "Nest," for example, painted several years back, depicted an autobiographical scene in an imaginary bed. Lying in the bed are Ms. Sciarra, her husband, David, and Sam, her son. Surrounding the bed are tombstones, a bleeding deer, a gun — "everything that makes me lose sleep at night," says the artist.
   As with Frida Kahlo’s paintings, Ms. Sciarra’s tell a story with layers of meaning. "Frida’s work is more grotesque and nightmarish than mine — she led a tumultuous life, but everyone goes through loss, and there have been times when I’ve ventured into darker themes. Her work has such incredible beauty so I turn to her for inspiration.
   "Mine might be about my family or what’s happening in a room or an emotion I’m working with. It’s like a puzzle, and the more you look the more you unlock different messages."
   Taking a break from the personal, Ms. Sciarra is delving into the downright difficult in the reverse paintings on glass. She paints on the back of the glass, but it is viewed from the front, so everything has to be done backward. Whereas in a normal painting the artist may lay down the background first and then add the sheep, here she has to first put in the details and later fill in the broader areas. After all that, she uses her fingernails to scratch away the paint and add more detail.
   When painting on canvas, an artist can always go back and paint over something she might not be pleased with; on glass, there’s no going back. Even the original sketch — in this case done in permanent marker on the glass — is visible in the final product. For example, details like the hatch marks on hay bundles had to go on first. "You really have to think through the details," she says.
   Ms. Sciarra learned the backward technique the same way she has learned everything in painting: "I just decided I wanted to do it. It continues to be a discovery process. Because I’m self-taught, I devised my own methods that continue to grow as I grow as an artist."
   Ultimately, she doesn’t really know how the painting will turn out until it is finished. "Some are a happy accident," she says. "The thrill is not knowing how it’s going to look. What keeps art exciting is the unpredictability of it — it’s a dynamic process, not about being in control. The painting takes me on a journey of unexpected things."
   Yet as complicated the technique, the final result looks soothingly simple.
   Just as the pendulum swings one way, after such meticulous work Ms. Sciarra is happy to go back to her other way of painting. "The lines don’t have to be exact, and I don’t want them to be — if it’s too exact it has less life, less warmth," she says.

TimeOFF/Mark Czajkowski
Above, "After Ecstasy, the Laundry."

   She is at work on a commissioned piece for a musical couple who liked her painting "Conspirito," in which a nude female stands in the doorway to a music room, but they wanted an original painting.
   It could have been the classic insult to an artist — "I want a painting to match the sofa" — but Ms. Sciarra is enjoying the collaborative process. She took photos of the clients’ house, knowing what pleases her eye but incorporating their colors and patterns. "They are part of the process and will get a special feeling from it. The pattern of curlicues in their chair appealed to me, so I thought, why not put their chair into the painting.
   "Subtle things had to be worked in, but I wanted it to be a beautiful painting that anyone would want," she says. A fireplace, music stand, patterns of rugs upon rug and stained glass have been worked in at the owners’ request, as have a saxophone, trumpet, harps, clarinet and piano. "I take notes and dream about it, letting it marinate in my brain," she says.
   The Arts Council show will include biscuit tins painted with local scenes — Terhune Orchards, Witherspoon Bread Co. and "My Front Door" — and a freestanding screen made from three wooden ironing boards joined by old brass hinges.
   Called "After Ecstasy, the Laundry," it is based on the Buddhist saying and is about living a mindful life, or "being in life aware."
   Each ironing board has, at its top, a white frilly feminine garment, blouses and a bustier. The ironing boards themselves are filled with detail, such as a painted canvas on which is adhered a photograph of an ecstatic dancer from the Mark Morris Company, holding up her arms. There are lines cut out of Buddhist monk and author Jack Kornfeld’s "A Path with Heart" pasted on it, as well as textiles and other images.
   "The more present we are, the more alive we are and appreciate being here. The laundry is the divine mundane, the simple pleasures," explains Ms. Sciarra. "We can consume or travel more, but what really matters is the laundry, the pleasure of pouring hot water into tea. Ecstasy lies in the laundry, the moment, being awake. And it works so beautifully on ironing boards."
Joie de Vivre, a show of paintings by Fay Sciarra and sculpture by Susanne Pitak Davis, will be on view at the Arts Council of Princeton, 102 Witherspoon St., Princeton, May 13-30. Opening reception: May 16. Gallery hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat.-Sun. by appointment. For information, call (609) 924-8777. On the Web: www.artscouncilofprinceton.org