We recently connected with Deanna Sirlin and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Deanna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My recent work “Watermark” is a translucent site work in the entrance of Crosland Tower at the Georgia Tech Library in Atlanta created and exhibited during my time as the first artist-in-residence for the library. “Watermark” reflects on the exhibition “50 Years of Science Fiction” by creating a new chromatic lens to view both the entrance to the library and the landscape of the campus through the deeply saturated color panels on the windows. This view of a utopian/dystopian landscape comes from my thoughts on the most important issue of our century — Climate Change. In this installation, I am calling attention to the rising water levels of the oceans.

Deanna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have been an artist all my life, making paintings and drawings. My first large scale Public Art commission was for a library where I created large scale glass panels that were tinted, etched with text and silkscreened with an image. My pivotal work, “Retracings”, was commissioned by the High Museum in Atlanta, Ga in 1999 and covered all the windows on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of the Richard Meier building. This enlargement of my paintings, which was translucent and saturated with color, informed a new way for me to engage the viewer. I want the view to be “in” the painting.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Color, when it is suffused with light, has a luminosity and intensity that I embrace in my work. Light has movement; it illuminates and transforms the environment with color. My interest is in the interaction of color and shape when the attribute of light is added. The structure is based on affinities and inclinations between and among the elements. Creating a new lens for the viewers that can change their perception is very rewarding.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Viewers have revealed to me the great joy that many individuals I do not know personally have expressed through images on social media of themselves interacting with my artwork. The light, color and composition became healing during this difficult time of the pandemic. These social media posts that show healing and joy are how I know the work is successful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.deannasirlin.com
• Instagram: @deannasirlinart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeannaSirlin
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanna-sirlin-68128814/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMjpWqSb85Ovt3TVcvlngtA

Image Credits
All images courtesy the artist