SACHA PENN

As a new addition to TROOP(read details below about website coming soon!) I will run an artist profile at least once a month. The first AP features good friend and wickedly talented artist, Sacha Penn who let me show off her painting which is the first of, I hope, many in a series of anatomic splendor in which Sacha dives beneath the surface of the human skin and makes even a mass of fibrous connective tissue curiously beautiful.

I'm excited to brag that I will be posing for the ocular muscle next week when I head down to visit her in Southern California and I can't wait to see the finished painting!

Sacha's Tools:

Paintbrushes - mostly sable, sold by the mysterious brush lady. "It's best not to question where or how she gets her brushes."

Shin Han Watercolor paint - sold in China Town in LA. Bad part of town, great paints.

Arches watercolor paper - ridiculously expensive paper found online or at art supply warehouse in westminster. It smells really bad. When I have time I'll make my own paper and not be poor.

Palette - can be anything, but I like to use something white and big.

I also spend a lot of time studying anatomy books and drawing the human figure so that I can understand how the muscles and bones relate to a specific pose.

AM:I see you have an interest in anatomy, is this a theme which carries through most of your artwork?

S:Unfortunately it isn't a constant theme. I am fascinated by human anatomy but it is rare that I get to indulge in it. If I had it my way all my work would in some way revolve around the intricacies and beauty of the human body inside and out - but a girl's gotta eat!

AM:Any artists that have inspired you? Mentors?

S:

Jenny Saville

Sam Webber

Vincent Van Gogh

William Wendt

Andrew Wyeth

Gustav Klimt

John Daugherty

and my mentors:

Peter Zokosky

Yu Ji

George Zebot

AM:What other interests do you have ( besides art)?

S: I have so many! Metalworking, baking, flying, nursing, farming, sewing, running, jumping and falling. I just love learning and working with my hands.

AM:Where do you see yourself in ten years?

S: I hope in ten years to be splitting my time between doctors without borders (as a biomedical illustrator/RN) and my ranch in Montana.

Finally, If you had to paint using only food items/ingredients what would your canvas taste like???

S: It would taste like the air on the first truly warm summer day after a long winter... and mangos

Ordinarily you'd just throw that stuff away

but for some designers...

your junk,trash, crap,rubbish,riff-raff, garbage are in fact their treasures. What you may discard as manufactured leftovers are the instruments for their expression. One of my favorite examples of 'resourceful art' is a boutique where the interior designers conceive over-the-top installation pieces with materials that look like they came from the yard sale around the corner. At Anthropologie it's the ordinary item that often is tweaked and manipulated to visually create the extraordinary. When I see an Anthropologie it's nearly impossible for me to pass the wonderfully strange shop without going inside and getting a glimpse of whatever new spectacle of interior design floats, drapes, dangles or appears to come crashing through the store wall. I've become slightly obsessed with the ephemeral charm of an Anthropologie-esque style. With a whimsical flair and a sort of vintage decadence the designers combine art with
fashion in a way that's often both impressive and unpredictable.
these are just a few of my favorites images

Three things I'm into right now...

Say Yes to Carrots(or Tomato or Cucumber): The Israeli based skin-care line which promotes “ healthy eating for the skin” can be found at Target. It’s cheap( like $8-$12 a bottle) and paraben free although their ingredients do include chemicals like propanediol and benzyl alcohol in their formulations so if that bothers you then walk two feet to the left and pick up some Weleda also found at Target though for a much higher price per ounce.

Raw Local Honey

That unheated, pure, unpasteurized, unprocessed goodness, that concentrated nectar of flowers is not only tasty but can provide all 22 minerals and enzymes the human body needs to sustain life. An alkaline forming food, raw honey contains ingredients similar to those found in fruits, which become alkaline in the digestive system. It doesn’t ferment in the stomach and it can be used to counteract acid indigestion. Most honeys found in the supermarket are not raw honey but “commercial" honey, which has been heated and filtered so that it looks cleaner and smoother, more appealing on the shelf, and easier to handle and package. When honey is heated, its delicate aromas, yeast and enzymes which are responsible for activating vitamins and minerals in the body system are partially destroyed. Hence, such honey is not as nutritious as raw honey. I purchase my honey at a market just outside of Napa for about $12 a jar. Why buy local? Well first off it benefits your local economy but also local honey contains the immune stimulating properties needed for your body to adapt to its environment.

Patti Smith: I like to think I have a pretty varied music taste but after going over my playlist I realize I have been living on a steady diet of blues, folk, Holiday and Cat Power for waay too long. Sure I have the odd 70’s punk band thrown in the mix but otherwise it’s just a melodic orgy of fiddles, mouth organs and the ol’ acoustic gee-tar. Also there’s a point where you can only listen to so much of Newsom’s harp before your sulking in the back of poorly lit cafés every weekend waiting for your turn so you can play some acoustic rendition of that song you wrote. You know the one, it’s upbeat,quirky, delightfully ironic but still has the underlying theme of…death?!?

It’s unbelievable that at 24 I’m just getting into this wonkey-eyed punk goddess but she’s great, I love her and she’s one of the last bad-ass old school rock mamas still playing live shows. I think she plays the Bowery in New York a few times in the next couple months. Even one more reason to move back to the city.