The last few years have been a whirlwind for Sirima Sataman. She navigated an unexpected death. She traded in her longtime career in the corporate world to move to West Marin for a “do-over” and continue her artistic pursuits. Sataman, who studied fine art at Pitzer College, has done just that through Ink.Paper.Plate, her printmaking studio and arts workshop in Point Reyes Station, where she’s honed her craft, and taught and mentored others until the pandemic hit.
After eloping with her husband, Walter, they moved onto his family’s Bolinas farmhouse, a place she’s been restoring while maintaining its chickens and other animals, vegetable garden, flowers and fruits, the excess of which goes to their farm stand. Until the pandemic, the Thailand-born Sataman also hosted the West Marin Asian Community Potluck.
Her artwork is inspired from imagery and artifacts that showcase cultural ecology and humanity in the context of the landscape, which are highlighted in her ongoing “Sentinel” series. One of those pieces, “Randall House,” is a part of the Bolinas Museum’s ongoing, online benefit art auction.
Q What has the pandemic been like for you?
A Like for everyone, when that pause button gets hit, you reassess what you have, what’s important to you and how you want to spend your days. I realized there’s a lot of things I am willing to give up. How I have been spending my COVID time, it feels more reactionary. I feel like I have been pioneering. It’s like we’ve got this great piece of land, let’s make it work for us, get it so that it feeds us and that the farm is doing something useful for the community.
Q How is this time going to impact your work?
A I am really affected by place and the sense of history, and the ghosts or memories of the people that have gone before. The “Sentinel” series is a look at the man-built environment and what we build when we come settle to a place. Early European settlers came here and built churches and ranch houses. When we drive around these places, there are some buildings that you keep staring at them because there’s an echo of something there. There’s something evocative about them. The pandemic has put a sharper point on what’s currently important and right now, it’s important to me to be close to my family and be close to the land, which connects to my art.
Q What drew you to printmaking?
A The physicality and that it’s a process. When you carve onto the block, there’s this dialogue or dance that happens.
Q Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative path?
A I didn’t but my art teacher did. I grew up all over the place; my parents were immigrants. My dad went to RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), he’s a photographer, got sponsored by Kodak, so we were always around that creative environment. Being in upstate New York, I had this Huck Finn existence. I was always an adventurous and outdoorsy person, and at some point in high school, there was that mandatory art class. I had this fabulous art teacher. I didn’t think anything off it, and I went off to college. For my senior thesis show, my art teacher showed up, and she said, “I had to come down. I saved every single one of your drawings and paintings. I knew you were going to be an artist.” My jaw dropped. One of the great things that I have ended up doing that I didn’t think I would is be a teacher.
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September 06, 2020 at 02:02AM
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Bolinas artist connects to land in artwork and pandemic life - Marin Independent Journal
"artist" - Google News
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