Join Ekaterina Popova and Rebecca Saylor Sack on an inspiring episode where the artist shares how she started exploring bats in her work and shifted her painting materials over the past few years.
Rebecca is an artist and the the program director of the Fine Arts Program and Painting emphasis coordinator at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Listen to this episode to learn about:
- How to shift your materials
- Finding references and images for new work
- Working with museums
- And more!
"Shadow Fliers is a collaborative project created by myself, Dr. Thomas Liley (Batlab Finland) and Mia Rönkä (biologist, poet and author). The exhibition was installed at the Lieto | Nautelankoski Museum in June 2022, in a working 19th century watermill and miller’s cottage that sit along the banks of the Aura (Aurajoki) river.
The mill at Nautelankoski exists on a site used for this purpose since the Middle Ages, and continues to be the home of Daubenton’s bat (a species that has been studied extensively by Dr. Lilley at the site), Northern bats, Brandts bat, as well other common species. These bats thrive on the insects that live in and around the water and the surrounding environment. They have cohabited with their human counterparts in this area since human habitation began.
Shadow Fliers consists of a series of large-scale double-sided acrylic on muslin paintings and accompanying narrative. The paintings re-imagine the bats that live in the structures and within the local environment, drawing from the history of the site and its connection to human habitation."
Rebecca Saylor Sack earned her MFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University and her BFA from The Cooper Union.
She is a recipient of the Fleisher Wind Challenge, and the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the United States Department of Education. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationwide, including Nicelle Beauchene Gallery (New York, NY); Westbeth Gallery (New York, NY); Seraphin Gallery (Philadelphia, PA); Fette’s Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); and Silas Marder Gallery (Bridgehampton, NY); The Michener Art Museum (Doylestown, PA); West Chester University (West Chester, PA); Stockton University (Galloway, NJ); The University of Delaware (Newark, DE) and internationally at the National Art Museum of China, (Beijing, China); Galleria Glance (Torino, Italy); and Donn Roca Gallery (Odense, Denmark). Sack’s work is in the collection of the National Art Museum of China, Alter Hall Collection, and Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, in addition to national and international private collections.
