Date of Submission

Spring 2024

Academic Program

Studio Arts

Project Advisor 1

Lisa Sanditz

Abstract/Artist's Statement

FREEDOM BROKE

an installation by Sophia Bartolotta

out west where life moves slow

broken wild kicking and spitting

an innocent girl and an undying love

where do we go with a broken soul

in a field of darkness

who do we cling to? who do we lose?

a flower of light

freedom broke,

forever beautiful to me

This series focuses on my work as a ranch hand on the coast of Northern California and my experience as an underpaid blue-collar worker in small-town America. In my studio, I have explored working and reworking as an act of making. I engage primarily in the intersection of high and low-quality materials like oil and house paint. Both mural and canvas works are sanded frequently as I work through them, building layers of text, paint, and paper.

In my early years at Bard I worked with fabric and paper dyeing, clay, print, and mixed media. Many of these practices led me to a process in which works are made through revisions, through applying paint and scraping it off, and created over many weeks alongside multiple other projects.

This installation was completed alongside my work at Sunrays, Inc. a nonprofit horse rescue founded by Bard alumn, Bonnie O’Hara, that provides access to horses and art education in our community of Kingston, NY. This work was equally informed by my time in the studio and my time spent at Sunrays teaching young people about horsemanship and leading students in artistic practice based on our surroundings and experiences.

I want the Bard community to consider our privileged art education and our access to the natural environment while viewing this work. I hope to bring attention to the importance of horses in rural and urban communities used for therapeutic and educational purposes.

Open Access Agreement

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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