Far From Home 

Curator: This is Sarah Joncas’s painting, “Far From Home.” Editor: It's lovely... melancholy, almost. She's up to her shoulders in water that looks shockingly cold. Is she alone? Curator: It feels like it, doesn't it? Joncas's oil paint technique gives the water such a still, muted quality. I find myself wondering what the labor to create this artwork might signify. All those meticulous brushstrokes, mimicking ripples that feel almost suspended in time. Editor: I see what you mean. It makes me consider, too, the consumer culture around our yearning for these landscapes. We buy into an image of isolation, but the canvas itself is manufactured. It makes you think. Is this escape or is it a well-packaged commodity? Curator: Both, perhaps! I get a very internal vibe from the subject; there is an aircraft faintly rendered on the horizon... Could that mean she feels far from herself or maybe a desire to be disconnected. The dot patterned swimwear she wears seems very old school against the almost futuristic landscape behind her. Editor: It is that sort of classic, idyllic form juxtaposed with the industrial presence of the airplane that catches my eye. Like this serene moment is on the verge of being shattered by consumerist pursuits. But also thinking of that red, polka dot bikini she's wearing— it could also refer back to images and representation; what women’s bodies are forced to wear or supposed to wear in those contexts? Curator: Yes! Her gaze is directed upwards as if watching her future take flight, yet also hinting at something that may never come into being. The way Sarah used such restrained colors feels so charged. Almost like everything's on the precipice of change... or discovery. Editor: The layers upon layers of choices – the type of canvas, oil paints selected and how the material is constructed to achieve such visual effect, really contribute to how "far from home" might encompass environmental, cultural, or gender related displacement. Curator: I love that connection. It reframes the idea entirely. It’s this lovely portrait, but then it pulls you into bigger questions about place, self, and belonging. Editor: Exactly! Sarah Joncas gets us questioning what lays beneath even in places where people think are perfect.