22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘She is Art': Artist expresses personality through paintings
Years after an abusive relationship, Karren Sager chose to express her artwork through quantum mechanics.
Her painting 'She is Art' is inspired by engineer Deodatta V. Shenai-Khatkhate, who once wrote: 'I often think that when two Hearts fall in Love, they too enter the quantum entanglement, and influence each other despite their separation.'
The painting contains a strong color contrast between the woman and the background; they are portrayed in a shaky and unconventional way. In a blue background with white spots, a woman with closed eyes and clasped hands opens her mouth with a stream of abstract patterns and lightning shapes next to it. This abstraction is quantum mechanics.
'So physics is fun. I enjoy reading about quantum mechanics and everything, and I read this quote,' said Sager, 42, a local Austin artist who operates under BoBnNoVa Art. 'I thought it was such a beautiful concept of love that had to drop.'
The theme of the painting, as Sager described, is about women overcoming obstacles – straightforward and meaningful. During the painting process, she incorporates personal emotions and messages she wishes to convey.
'One of the things about leaving any relationship is about returning to yourself,' Sager said. 'Because you kind of become meshed with people that you are with, and they affect your emotions and your mind and your spirit.'
According to Sager, working as a local artist in Austin is therapy. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute has reported that 72 percent of its participants had a significant reduction in anxiety after engaging in creative arts therapies.
Sager, as an artist, has used paintings to reconcile a post-traumatic time. She said she recognized the individual differences when it comes to relationships, but one's own relationship is the ultimate important factor to prioritize.
'But I think if you find a partner, and it doesn't matter, girl, boy, whatever, that you can connect with and share and have the ability for each person to take care of their own things,' Sager said. 'Because if you have two people that are good at the exact same thing, and they're on top of each other trying to beat each other all the time. That doesn't make a relationship.'
Sager's other works range from landscapes to animal portraits, all in abstract form.
She's also into boots: boots organized in a storage box, a boot topped with a cake, a cowboy boot with a UFO beaming up a cow. Sager said these connect with her because this quirkiness is her personality.
'It's okay to just be yourself,' she said. 'And it doesn't have to be like this crazy thing.' Related
