‘When Sara Pezzella has a stomach ache, she feels yellow, not green. The color has nothing to do with nausea.
Pezzella is a synesthete: she often perceives pain and emotion as color.
“Being a synesthete helps me look at things a little differently and work with colors a little differently,” the senior art major said.
Pezzella said her knack for color, so eye-poppingly evident in her photography and paintings, comes from her synesthetic ability to associate color with emotion and physical pain.
“I think about the emotions my subconscious is feeling, and I have all of these colors in my mind that contribute to the meaning and significance of a piece, as opposed to them being more representational,” Pezzella said.
Pezzella has always had this constant awareness of color. In fact, it wasn’t until she picked up an article about synesthesia by chance that she realized her vibrant worldview was unique.
Pezzella spent her early years in Chicago, where she was homeschooled by her mother alongside her three sisters. Time wandering through the Art Institute of Chicago with a sketchbook in hand illustrates her elementary memories.
“My older sisters weren’t very artistic, so I was the random little artsy kid who was always covered in paint,” Pezzella said.
Pezzella’s mother, a prolific seamstress, tailored her daughter’s lessons to suit her artistic inclinations. Rather than memorize each of the body’s biological systems from a textbook, for example, Pezzella learned the ins and outs of basic biology by penciling the contours of human organs onto sketch paper.
“I learned a lot better that way,” Pezzella said. “I looked for creativity everywhere possible.”
As Pezzella transitioned into high school, she began dabbling in photography, picking up junky old cameras from garage sales and experimenting with quirky aberrations.
“At the start, my interest in photography was a typical teenage girl thing,” Pezzella said. “As time in high school went on, I became really fascinated by the history of photography and the different tools I could use. I’m interested in the aspect of making something that’s unique to me in a medium that’s very documentary.”
By her junior year of high school, Pezzella said she knew her fascination with art extended beyond teenaged hobbies. Realizing her dreams of a career in art, she scoured art blogs looking for direction and inspiration. When her eyes weren’t trained on a computer screen, she was asking anyone and everyone to pose for a portrait.
When Pezzella’s time of self-instructed improvement finished, she chose Hillsdale as the next step toward professional artistry. Pezzella said she knew of Hillsdale from her two older sisters, both alumnae of the college.
But her appreciation for the school and its art department is entirely her own.
“When I did my own college search, I fell in love with the idea of not being just an artist,” Pezzella said. “I’ve taken away things from all of my liberal arts classes that has improved my craft.”
Pezzella said she threw herself into art classes as soon as she arrived on campus. She completed her favorite project — a self-portrait incorporating different patterns — during Design I.
“I loved that project because it was a different way to do realism,” Pezzella said.
Finding this distinct approach to realism in Pezzella’s work comes as no surprise considering her personal style, which, she said, emphasizes the principles of design, color, and simple geometric forms.
“Sara tends to do a lot of abstract work with a lot of motion. She has a very dynamic sense of style, as opposed to being strictly realist,” Lecturer of Art Doug Coon said. “I get the sense she’s not interested in doing a completely realist approach to portraiture. It has a lot more of her response to what she wants to create rather than an exact copy.”
Professor of Art Sam Knecht said he sees a stylistic association between Pezzella’s paintings and works by renowned artists like Andy Warhol and Vincent Van Gogh, who happens to be one of Pezzella’s favorite artists.
“Her strength as a painter is an exuberant use of color that, when given free rein, goes beyond naturalism and enters a realm of expressionism,” Knecht said.
This September, Pezzella showed some of this vibrant, emotional work in ArtPrize, an annual three-week art festival held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. One weekend, Pezzella made the trip north and visited her pieces — two photos and one painting — hanging on the white brick wall of the gallery.
“When I got to spend time by my piece talking to visitors about my art, I got to practice rambling on about my work, which all artists should be able to do,” Pezzella said. “It was a really nice experience getting to interact with my audience.”
Pezzella said her submission to ArtPrize is part of an effort to transition into the life of a professional artist.
“If you want to pursue some career in the arts, you have to make a point to go out and show your work,” Coon said. “You’ve got to develop a thick skin, and Sara seems pretty comfortable with that.”
While an art career is Pezzella’s long-term goal, she said she hopes her immediate, post-graduation job will involve some sort of creativity. Eventually, though, she wants the life of a professional: showing art, selling art, teaching art.
“Art is a skill that you can learn,” Pezzella said. “Some people have more of an innate ability, but if you practice, you’ll come a long way.”