- Énoncé de l'artiste : Sarah Quintin

I am drawn to the challenge of transformation. This is obvious in my art as well as in my interest in athletics, in particular the sport of triathlon. Both my art and triathlon involve assemblages of techniques which facilitate self-metamorphosis: escapes from external reality into conditions of self-mastery in which my expressive facultives are freed.

Triathlon brings together my three preferred sports: swimming, cycling, and running. Triathlon is an exciting test because it offers variety and change. Assemblage parallels these characteristics. By combining photography, sculpture, and painting, I have more flexibility and few of the constraints inherent in the individual disciplines. Working intuitively, I allow materials such as plywood, photographs, metal, mirror, canvas, sand, bark, moss, roof shingles, fabric, and paint to intervene in the sculptural and painting process. Through this freedom of intervention, new ideas are discovered.

I find swimming the most difficult to train for of the three component sports of triathlon. This is because swimming within the constraints of a pool is monotonous. However, swimming provides me with a good base for the other two sports. Photography, for me, is like swimming; I do not enjoy the technical processes, yet I often use the results as the base for my ideas. Collaged photographs used as maquettes, Van Dyking, and gluing photocopies and black and white photographs, often of myself, onto plywood or canvas are processes used in the initial stages. Photography is important to me because I enjoy the contrast between reality and illusion that it can provide. Leaving part of the image -- especially eyes -- unmasked by paint creates a surreal, often frightening quality in the work.

The second stage of a triathlon -- cycling -- is usually the longest segment. It provides time to think about and plan the rest of the race. This is similar to the second phase of my work. My approach to sculpture is through relief or cut-outs -- often from the outline of my body. What I enjoy most is its physicality. I love to dig, scratch, cut and nail into its surfaces. These methodical activities provide time to think about my ideas.

The final segment of a triathlon is running. It is the stage I look forward to the most. I am freed from the constraints of the bicycle, and do not have to fight through the waves of the lake. I feel this way when I paint. I have total freedom. I use colour as a device to seduce viewer and express my energy and emotion.

Through the use of mix media, the outline of my body, and the expression of my ideas, art, like triathlons, provides endless avenues of self-discovery and metamorphosis. My art is an expression of not only my external, but also my internal world. My art and myself are inseparable.

- QUINTIN, Sarah



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