“Reality and fantasy are often funny, critical, and emotional places to reside in…” Sierra DeMers

"Pencil vs. Dorm" by Sierra DeMers, Mixed media, 8x12in, 2016, $15

While it can be said that any art gives us insight into how an artist sees, Sierra Demers illustrates how an artist might look at the world in clever images that combine the imagination and “reality”.

“I am a daydreamer,” says DeMers. “I will frequently take a look at the real world I’m living in and play out some wacky, impossible scenario in my head. While this might seem like I’m ignoring reality, I feel more like I’m embracing it. I like to explore this duality in my work, peering into one of these states of mind through the other. Reality and fantasy are often funny, critical, and emotional places to reside in, and I like focusing on the connections between them.”

Reality vs. illusion has always been a fertile theme for creativity, allowing us to question our assumptions about…well, anything, really, including our own sense of identity. But while DeMers is on well-trod ground, she occupies it with her highly individual point-of-view, which never takes it's self too seriously. All of her work, especially her animation, has a sure understanding of fun.

“One of the key elements through which I channel these musings is movement. When I create any work, regardless of medium, subject, or dimension, in my mind it is always in motion. This is what draws me so much to animation, that I can convey my crazy notions exactly as I see them, moving and life-like, without having the limitations that life brings to it.”

Hometown: Frankfort, Kentucky
Education: BFA candidate, Bellarmine University, May 2018
Website: sierrademers.wixsite.com/portfolio
Instagram: sierrakay_light/