About The Artist

I am Sierra Roberts, twenty six years of age from Wanaka, New Zealand. I am interested in capturing the expression and ‘spirit’ of humans in our human existence. The faces of the world and the stories that live through their eyes is the essence of my artistic practice. I became interested in portraiture as a teenager. I would spend hours practicing drawing eyes. Loving the feeling of engagement when those eyes came alive, looked at you and really saw you. The more I worked on portraits the more I understood nothing is more powerful that the human connection and the human ’story’. To achieve these feelings, I dramatize my use of paint, contrast, colors, vibrancy and deeper expressions. Every human from every culture has their own unique story. How they adorn themselves, whether it’s with clothing, face paint or jewelry this practice creates their identity of themselves and shares their story. But it isn’t the full story. The full story is felt, connected with. You understand it more through feeling than word. This is what I strive to achieve through my use of paint. I find more often than not in this day and age that connections between people are lost, we spend more time looking at their phone or avoiding eye contact on the street than trying to get to know one another. I go back to many of the indigenous groups I have been fortunate enough to meet through my travels and am continuously inspired by their close communities and families. I aim to encourage through my own portraits a sense of empathy and humanity, interest taken in one another in hopes of inspiring future human connections. The faces of the world and the stories that live through their eyes is the essence of my artistic practice. I take inspiration from other people and cultures, their rituals and routines, their colors and the vibrancy they project. I aim to make my works colorful and bold to reflect that each individual person radiates their own light and is a statement within themselves, a story to be shared, a connection to be made.