7 7/8 x 8 inches, oil paint on paper, 2019. Framed prints available in the shop: https://etsy.me/35nmBgl

Dance of the Storm Witch, Oracles & Evacuations series, oil on paper, ~8" x 12"

7.5″x9.5″, oil on aged paper, mounted on reclaimed wood. 2013

Oracles and Evacuations Series

Leaving The Forest, Oil on paper, 8″ x 5″

Oil on aged paper, 6 6/8"x5 6/8"

Abstract Hunters, 5.5″ x 6.75″ (before frame), Oil on paper and reclaimed wood.

Oil on paper and reclaimed wood, historic nails. 5.5″ x 6.75″ (before frame)

17" x 14", watercolor on Canson paper

Oil on paper and reclaimed wood, historic nails. 15.5″ x 9.25″

6" x 9"

8" x 6.25"

Oil on paper, 3.75″ x 3.5″

Daily Kindwords, 2014, oil on paper and wood, 13.25″ x 10″

Daily Kindwords, 2014, oil on paper and wood, 13.25″ x 10″

Oil on paper, 7.5″ x 10″

Oil, paper, reclaimed wood, historic nails. 14.5″ x 16.75″ dir·i·gi·ble/ˈdirijəbəl/ Adjective: Capable of being steered, guided, or directed. Noun: A lighter than air craft or hovering body. *It is unclear whether the dirigibles are the boys or the bubbles they are blowing, or something else entirely.

Sketch for Picnic with Vultures, oil on board, 8" x 10" Sometimes, all the violence leaks into the sketch, and there's nothing you can do about it. Like children.

Serpent House, Oracles & Evacuations series, ~7" x 7.5"

This series is based on two trust games. One is called The Stag Hunt, the other is called Relationships. In Rousseau’s “A Discourse on Inequality”, and Hume’s “Treatise”, The Stag Hunt is a theoretical blind trust game used to describe the social contract, and its attendant risks. In The Stag Hunt, two hunters go on a hunt together. Each must choose to hunt either a hare or a stag, but they must choose blindly. In other words, they cannot know the choice of the other. If one chooses a hare, the hare can be caught without the cooperation of the other. If one chooses to hunt a stag, the cooperation of the other is essential for success. The stag is more valuable, but the hare is easier to catch. They only have a chance at catching the stag if they both decide to hunt the stag. In this painting, the figures are stand-ins for any two individuals in absolutely any kind of relationship. Even if both know the possible set of strategies, and the attendant risks, they still may not make the decisions that will yield the highest success for them. The likelihood of catching a hare alone is much greater than the possibility of both individuals happening to trust enough to choose to hunt the stag. In fact, each hunter’s chances of catching a hare goes up if there is no competition, so if both players do not decide to trust and go for the stag, one player’s chance of catching a hare on his own goes up if the other player chose to hunt a stag instead. In their 2001 presidential address to the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, Skyrms and Irvine said, “In the Stag Hunt, what is rational for one player to choose depends on his beliefs about what the other will choose. Both stag hunting and hare hunting are equilibria. That is just to say that it is best to hunt stag if the other player hunts stag and it is best to hunt hare if the other player hunts hare. A player who chooses to hunt stag takes a risk that the other will choose not to cooperate in the Stag Hunt. A player who chooses to hunt hare runs no such risk, since his payoff does not depend on the choice of action of the other player, but he foregoes the potential payoff of a successful stag hunt. Here, rational players are pulled in one direction by considerations of mutual benefit and in the other by considerations of personal risk.” The tension of the uncertain relationship between the man and the powerful animal (the stag, or deer/ Dear) dominates the horizontal axis of the painting, but it is the rope (a symbol of connection) that binds them together and balances the figures and the plane. If one stopped pulling, the other would topple. It is the active engagement in the struggle to hold (and possibly steer) that maintains the link. Because all of the weight in the painting is being created and held in the taut rope / chord, it indicates that the connection between the two figures is the most important place in this landscape. This painting was created as a meditation on relationships as encounters in an uncertain wilderness. The outer edges of this little painting were rubbed with iodine. Iodine is both extremely touch sensitive, and used to stabilize filaments in light bulbs. This delicate substance used to stabilize objects of illumination seemed an appropriate symbol to surround this depiction of the difference between the moment of having and the work of holding.

Oil on paper, 8″ x 5″

Oil on aged paper, 6"x4 1/2"

8.5”x 5”, oil on pine. Abstracted portrait of Professor John Delano, Mentor, SUNY Albany, Presidential Honors Program.

33" x- 41.5", oil on linen

16” x 12” oil on pine.

The Well-diggers Triptych. 4.75”x 15”, oil on wood

Man with Suspenders of Disbelief, oil on pine, 4.5”x 3.5”

Landscape painting, upstate NY.

Oil on paper, 9″ x 11″

The Well-diggers Triptych. 7”x 14”, oil on wood

14.5”x7”, oil on wood.

11.5″ x 15″ (at the widest axes). Oil, paper, reclaimed wood, historic nails.

Into the Well, Oil on canvas.

Oil on paper, 9″ x 11″

From The Withing in the Woods series. Oil, paper, reclaimed wood, historic nails. 11.5″ x 14″ People often mistake the item in her hand for a golf club. It is actually a butterfly net, though she still has the stance of a golfer. The important difference is that the tool she isn’t holding is used to hit things AWAY from the self. This collection is comprised of paper, oil paint, recycled woods, and the occasional antique hand-hewn nail.

21.5”x 11”, oil on board

The Anesthesiologist, oil on wood miniature.

Pomegranate, oil, and tea on pine

Oil, paper, reclaimed wood, historic nails. 14.5″ x 16.75″ dir·i·gi·ble/ˈdirijəbəl/ Adjective: Capable of being steered, guided, or directed. Noun: A lighter than air craft or hovering body. *It is unclear whether the dirigibles are the boys or the bubbles they are blowing, or something else entirely.

From The Withing in the Woods series. Oil, paper, reclaimed wood, historic nails. 10.75″ x 14.75″

Oil on paper, 8″ x 6.5″

Las Menositas, oil on reclaimed wood and paper, 5.25 x 6.15 x 1" The little sleeper in the white frame: Las Menositas. The painting was larger at first. It was Las Meninas (via Diego Velázquez), but all the subjects fell asleep...possibly dead...maybe just unconscious or Elsewhere...the doorway was empty, showing nothing but the boots, and all the bodies were on the floor. In the end, the others were cut away and only the image of her remained, like the rumors of Anastasia Romanov, whose possible survival was eventually conclusively disproved...

Before The Tide

Oil on paper, 3.5″ x 5″

Oil on paper. 2016

Oil on paper. 2016 Before seeing the written lyrics of ★, while taking in the video, I was convinced that David Bowie was singing, "In the villa of Amun, stands a solitary candle", and I was completely 'blown away' by the beauty of this sentence (pardon the pun, but it's necessary to connect humans to the candle, vessels of memory and memorial) . The image of the ancient god of wind having a candle in his home completely floored me. Just imagine... if he ever arrives in his own home, the candle's flame will be blown out. What a poignant and wild way to address mortality! When I searched for the written words, and discovered the actual written lyrics (Ormen, not Amun), I started to wonder if this too was one of Bowie's tricks, or if it was just chance. I love to dream-wash extra layers of symbolism onto everything, but I still wonder, in this case. Bowie was certainly clever enough. Could he have left that ambiguity as a way of creating yet another field of divergent possibilities? Riffing on the idea that sound and the sound of words are the waves, and the written words are like particles.... placing him somewhere through and between those positions, succeeding where Whitman's Sleepers failed, and re-insuring his immortality, by building his message into all of the in-betweens.... Even if I'm completely wrong, I'd like to imagine he gave us that trick as part of his final message....

Digital collage, 2007

Burning Secrets collage. Three women in flames, telling secrets.

A reclining woman erupting with skyscrapers. Real estate collages. Wherein human dwellings transfer themselves onto unattainable canvases, and and dance away into the past with their sisters. Gentrification at its finest in a vintage photograph.

Real estate collages. Wherein human dwellings transfer themselves onto unattainable canvases, and and dance away into the past with their sisters. Graceful women with skyscraper heads pose in a vintage photograph.

Togetherness, digital collage

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match....

Collision Between Two Good Sized Galaxies, by NYC collage artist Sarah Zar

Mounted Kingdoms, limited edition collage

Pencil on photo book page, 6.5″ x 7.13″ Collage for a song on the nearly impossible to find album, “Sphynx Paper Company”

Digital projection. This tiny motion picture was projected 2″ from floor onto a white wall over miniature couch at exactly this scale, where an invisible audience once watched, before getting up to take action and steer the course of their lives.

Inhabitation collage series

Digital collage for limited edition prints. From "At Night The Clouds Are Forgotten", a series of 6 ‘time lapse’ collages. The scene: where quantum entanglements and converging fields go to have a nice cup of tea and brush each Other’s hair.

Digital collage for limited edition prints. From "At Night The Clouds Are Forgotten", a series of 6 ‘time lapse’ collages.

Digital collage for limited edition prints. From "At Night The Clouds Are Forgotten", a series of 6 ‘time lapse’ collages.

Digital collage for limited edition prints. From "At Night The Clouds Are Forgotten", a series of 6 ‘time lapse’ collages.

Digital collage for limited edition prints. From "At Night The Clouds Are Forgotten", a series of 6 ‘time lapse’ collages.

Spotty research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

Eating paint as a family.

Den of Snake

Ill fortune cookies, ltd.ed.

Ill Fortune Cookies, ltd.ed. print

Climate change collage

Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

A digital remix of Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys' The Pearl (British, 1829–1904)

Dolphin Cloud Formation, black and white collage

Bird Nanny, 3.5" x 5.5"

This Russian babushka discovers something strange in her food, when she puts it on the scale. Meesha and potatoes, food market collage.

These Historic Manned-Scape collages exist as a limited edition series of prints.

These Historic Manned-Scape collages exist as a limited edition series of prints.

These Historic Manned-Scape collages exist as a limited edition series of prints.

These Historic Manned-Scape collages exist as a limited edition series of prints.

Inhabitation collage series

Inhabitation collage series

Inhabitation collage series

History’s Comb-Hither Smile Postcard. Collage printed on postcard, for Into The Forest Weight 350gsm Finish Gloss laminate on the image side, unlaminated on the reverse. Production Sourced from sustainable forests. Elemental Chlorine free, wood free. Printed on premium quality sustainably sourced paper (16pt / 350gsm). The image side has a glossy laminated finish, the other side is uncoated to make it easier to write on.

Invitation poster for an event that is impossible to attend. For the Torcher Chamber Ensemble.

Segal intervention, Montclair, NJ

Front page of The New Or Times, an absurdist newspaper.

Detail from the International News Section of "The New Or Times", an absurdist newspaper.

Detail from the Arts and Culture Section of "The New Or Times", an absurdist newspaper.

~ An American marble bust of George Washington. "We believe this to be a unique and unknown very beautiful likeness" - Florene Maine Antiques, Ridgefield, Conn. 06877. Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

A cultural commemoration collage from the “Deportment of the Interior” series.

A cultural commemoration collage from the “Deportment of the Interior” series.

A cultural commemoration collage from the “Deportment of the Interior” series.

Plowden Weston takes a Lesson in Bubble Gum. Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

Robert Anderson, In Defense of Trees, 1861, via Powell. Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

~An Impromptu Affair, via -Frederick James. Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

George Brinton McClellan In Defense of Trees. Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

George and Belle Townsley Smith. Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

His Only Comfort. Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

~An Impromptu Affair, via -Frederick James. Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

See Spots Run, mixed media

Two Men Hunting An Anxious Moment, via Arthur Fitzwilliam Tate. Research for "Riddled With Spots", a posthumous collaboration with Charles Whymper.

From the "Mounted Kingdoms" Series.

Mixed media on photo from old book, 10″ x 13″

From Deleuzian Objects Series. Eau de Joy, is an inverted container. Its label reads, “Outside of this vessel, all the joy in the world is contained.” Its purpose is to designate a potential field of joy external to its own spatially specific literal vessel, reminding its Perceivers that joy is therefore possible in the zone they inhabit. It is a reminder that we create our own lens and can take an active role as the curators of our own reality. Art does not need to be only a studio practice. A studio does not need to be any smaller than a universe or a life.

Under Stand, ceramic, paint, velvet runner, wood.

5″ x 5″ x 8″. plaster, paint, wax, leaf. *This piece no longer exists. It was destroyed in an unfortunate jack-hammer incident.

*This piece no longer exists. It was destroyed in an unfortunate jack-hammer incident, in which it was ground to a fine powder, leaving nothing behind but plaster dust and remnants of the bindings.

The art book, Riddled With Spots, by Sarah Zar and Charles Whymper. At the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art).

Riddled with Spots is a short book about the Maker’s search. It traces the journey of artists (also known as The Moonlight Hunters) on the search for their creations. This pictorial poem was created as a posthumous collaboration between contemporary artist Sarah Zar and the late Charles Whymper. A visual narrative that invites interpretation, the space and pacing reflects how artists internalize the world, and how the world internalizes them.

Modified "Woman” via Naples Royal Porcelain Manufactory (Ferdinand IV period, ca. 1771–ca.1807), Italian, Naples via The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Moonlight Hunter, sculpted for the book "Riddled With Spots".

Dear John - bottomless bird cages - installation detail- Sarah Zar sculptures

The writing inside: Absit omen This is Latin for “May the omen be absent”, which means may this not be an omen. The words are a psychological talisman to ward off the ever-dreaded writer’s block. If you would like one of your own, please reach out with the contact tab on this site.

WEARABLE PSYCHOLOGY Type–tokens are a series of jewelry, accessories, and baubles that can be used as tools to help us explore our understanding of the people around us. Each piece in the Wearable Psychology line has a different purpose. This amulet can be used to determine the tambor of a person's life perspective at the moment of viewing. *Tambor- a set of two interlocking hoops between which cloth is stretched before stitching.

In olden days, people tied pieces of cloth around any painful part of their body to hold the “spirit of life” in that area. They believed this would cure it and keep the pain from spreading to other parts of the body. The tradition of tying a string on the finger was similarly designed to “keep” the thought there, to be remembered later when it was needed. Give this handmade sculpted finger as a gift to help preserve a memory or to create a new one. (*…could theoretically be used for blackmail, but if it is, we accept no responsibility for that...or for laughing.) TAG READS: “I will always remember …”

An illustration for Brendan Schweda's upcoming book, "The Order Of The Days". He's investigating the ancient roots of the concept of days, and their symbolic progression through the history of our kind. All of the components in the drawing are tied to the history of Saturday, it's gods, myths, and archetypes...

Riddled with Spots, front book cover image, by S. Zar & Whymper, A. Keck Press

carrion / carry-on, graphite drawing

Single File - detail

Feed. Mixed media drawing with charcoal, white-wash, and water. Why yes, this is a picture of business men in suits eating each other's faces with their pointy bird beaks.

Sphinx Rehabilitation Project- Mythitarian Relief Fund, Oracles & Evacuations series, 14" x 17"

Rough Photocopy of an early drawing

Riddled with Spots, interior artist edition book image, by S. Zar & Whymper, A. Keck Press

Collaboration with Chadwick Kesterbell. Could you copy that for me in triplicate?

“When diving into a stranger hear the splash of your own veins.”

Paper, 35mm photographs, recycled woods, and the occasional antique hand-hewn nail. 6″ x 8″

Paper, 35mm photographs, recycled woods. 5.5″ x 3.25″ Circa the past. Some pictures just aren’t ready to emerge until they’ve been drowned in the trunk of a flooded car for 6 months. Finally, it feels like a good “likeness”.

8.5″ x 3.5″ Text reads: “It is there. So is he. It is with him.” Paper, 35mm photographs, recycled woods, and the occasional antique hand-hewn nail.

Paper, 35mm photographs, recycled woods. 7.5″ x 7.5″ This collection is comprised of paper, 35mm photographs, recycled woods, and the occasional antique hand-hewn nail.

The photographs in this series were taken between 1999 and 2005 with an old 35mm camera Zar’s grandfather used to take pictures of orphans he and his wife rescued after WWII. After being developed, they were lost in an unnoticed flood (the pictures, not the orphans), until the well of weather-water was discovered, and they were repurposed into these pieces. The negatives were all destroyed.

There Was, 3.5″ x 3.25″ Paper, 35mm photographs, recycled woods, and the occasional antique hand-hewn nail.

The photographs in this series were taken between 1999 and 2005 with an old 35mm camera Zar’s grandfather used to take pictures of orphans he and his wife rescued after WWII. After being developed, they were lost in an unnoticed flood (the pictures, not the orphans), until the well of weather-water was discovered, and they were repurposed into these pieces. The negatives were all destroyed.

1.5″ x 4″ x 6″ This collection is comprised of paper, 35mm photographs, recycled woods, and the occasional antique hand-hewn nail.

18.25″ x 12.5″ Paper, 35mm photographs, recycled woods, and the occasional antique hand-hewn nail.

This collection is comprised of paper, 35mm photographs, recycled woods, and the occasional antique hand-hewn nail.

8″ x 7.5″ This collection is comprised of paper, 35mm photographs, recycled woods, and the occasional antique hand-hewn nail.

Actual size: smaller than 2"

Musical saw player, Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Naomi White.

Ryder Cooley and Sarah Zar locking antlers as deers.

Brooklyn based artist, Sarah Zar, paints, sculpts and builds installations that create postmodern narratives that mingle with external and interior realities. Her paintings, often executed in low-lit, moody colors, are filled with bizarre figures, interacting or inhabiting solitary scenes with other unnatural presences, absences, and transpositions. She is often influenced and inspired by history, literature and libraries.

Interactive installation. A small child wandering through the forest of branches and brambles to drop her wish into the well. It will live in the floor of the abandoned church until it crumbles. The building has since been reopeneded as a community arts center, and when the floors are replaced in the process of the restoration, the words and wishes left in the well will become a part of the building. Interactive installation/ performance for VESTUARY OPERATICS. Saint Anthony’s Cathedral, Albany, NY, 2007

Vestuary Operatics (performance still), photo by Leif Zurmuhlen

(Live mural painting performances on ladders with C. Ryder Cooley), Albany Center Gallery, Albany NY, July 4 and 18th, 2008

Portrait still from Sarah Zar's performance piece in Athens, NY, with Carolyn Ryder Cooley