Sophia Allison

Hello and welcome to my first newsletter! I hope you are doing as well as can be physically, mentally emotionally, spiritually, or otherwise. Here I will share my art practice as well as my day-to-day experiences and observations that feed into my art-making. My work spans drawing, papermaking, sculpture and the occasional installation. I am particularly interested in material exploration, and combine memory, domestic practices, repeating patterns and experiences with landscape into my work. I have a home studio practice and mostly work at my kitchen table (which I will write more about in a future newsletter.)

The work above, Untitled (Pink Stacked Landscape), is on view through March 28 in the exhibition Santa Monica Artists in Residence, 2020 – 2024, at the Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica. I was an Artist-in-Residence at the Camera Obscura Art Lab from October 2024-February 2025.

During that time period, I created several paper sculptures that are currently on view through June 30, 2026 at the San Diego Airport in Terminal 2 East, Pre-Security. (No boarding pass is required to view these.) My presentation is part of a (16) artist exhibition seen in various locations throughout the airport titled Mirror, Mirror curated by the wonderful Daniel Dennert. I created work that was inspired by various Southern California landscapes, micro and macro. I utilized handmade paper techniques combined with watercolor paper and physical elements of landscapes (like sand, dirt, pebbles) to create these sculptures. It was a wonderful experience and stretched my art-making muscles.

Currently, I am working on a new series of low relief collages that incorporate hand made paper, seed catalogue imagery, acrylic paint, glitter and sewing, as well as other elements. These works are influenced by my interest in gardening and my observations around a local community garden of which I have been a member since 2017. Throughout the years, I’ve documented experiences and changes that take place in my garden plot as well as around the garden. I consider myself an amateur gardener and learn by watching others and observing plant cycles. It still feels like magic when a seed actually sprouts. Then comes the work of trying to help it thrive (or just getting out of the way and letting it do its thing.) When I made the piece below, I was thinking about a time a few years back when I walked into the community garden and saw the bees from our hives practicing their swarming. I was the only one in the garden at that moment, and kept my distance but watched, fascinated. They moved together in a kind of rhythmic dance across the plots. I had never witnessed a swarm and it was pretty amazing.

As my individual art-making practice is somewhat solo, I often organize pop-up events, zines and art exhibitions with my friends at my apartment as well as group gallery meet-ups and the occasional potluck or art road trip. About 3 years ago, I started making more of an effort to reconnect with friends in a semi-regular way (as regular as 40 and 50 plus year-olds are available with family, work, menopause and the general exhaustion and goings-on of life, etc.) It’s proved wonderful and joyful and makes me feel a little more tethered, not just to art-related doings but also in deepening my relationships and getting to know folks better in all their humanness.

Thank you for reading! Hope to see you soon!

www.sophiaallison.com

IG: @sophia.allison