Featured Artist Sol Hill | Artsy Shark

Enter the fascinating world of artist Sol Hill, who creates figurative work based on energy and vibrations. View more of  his work on his website.

 

 

We live in a wondrously mysterious universe, yet we experience a tiny amount through our limited senses and call that little bit reality. To challenge this habit, I use camera sensors to record the energetic fingerprint of our universe. I do this by exploiting how a digital sensor is designed to see energy. Consequently, it records much more than just visible light. I manipulate the exposure process to maximize the recording of all the energy a sensor can see that we cannot.

 

 

Therefore, I call my work Metagraphs because they are recordings of more than visible light. They provide a kind of meta-vision that, metaphorically and literally, allows us to see the vibratory nature of reality. The result is a visual language I use to explore the intersection of art, science, and spirituality.

 

 

I aim to make work that creates a sense of wonder and visual pleasure. Neurology, biology, morality, and spirituality need positive and pleasurable stimulation. Beauty is a powerful life-affirming force, not an option but a requirement of the human condition. Without it, our condition deteriorates into something that falls far short of our potential and is often unpleasant, full of negativity, and unhealthy. In short, it turns into something not worth living for.

 

 

The medium I work with is considered the trash of digital imaging. The artifacts of digital noise are considered unwanted ugly flaws. Working with these flaws is my way of saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nothing is inherently ugly or worthless, so look for beauty everywhere and discover its transformative power.

 

 

I was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico to artist parents and spent my formative years in art studios and my parents’ gallery. Hill’s Gallery was the first commercial contemporary art gallery in Santa Fe. As a child, I always thought I would understand the language of the mysterious objects around me when I grew up. As an adult, I realized that no language would explain all the artwork I saw. Each piece attempts to create a language that spoke the mysteries the creator was reaching for.

 

 

My parents begged me to pursue a more practical path when I announced I wanted to study art in college. So, I earned my degree in International Affairs, specializing in Persian Gulf security matters. I have always loved understanding how systems work and interact at a macro level. After an intense medical crisis that made me reevaluate my life’s direction in my 30s, I returned to art as my passion. I moved to California to do my MFA and find my own visual language.

 

 

My background in political studies remains rattling around in my subconscious and periodically emerges in mixed media projects, usually with a political, environmental, or social justice theme. I embrace the divided nature of my artistic practice.

 

 

The Metagraphic work is loftier and appeals to my higher consciousness. In contrast, the political work anchors me in the world we live in and employs my skills as an artist to engage in the discussions of pragmatic importance if we are going to preserve life and civilization as we know it on this tiny, precious life-filled speck of a planet that we call home. 

 

Artist Sol Hill invites you to follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

 

 

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