Sara Rybitski – Visual Arts at Russell Sage College

Sara Rybitski

Art + Extended Media

I am a traditional and digital wildlife illustrator based in Upstate New York. Through personifications of North-Eastern American wildlife, I seek to embrace my unconditional compassion for discovering the beautiful complexities of nature and my prey drive. My definition of what is beautiful has a direct relation to morality; a fragile, temporary existence. Creating morally ambiguous or deceiving compositions highlight the nuances in the extremes of life and death. This perspective originates from my background of fishing and hunting in the Adirondack Mountains with my wonderful, tumultuous, and disturbed family members. The motif of frogs and deer within my practice act as vessels for our sentimentality and how we sympathize with animals without the bridge of direct communication. They are manifestations of primal emotions, including inevitable desires and dooms, based on their existing sensitive traits for others and their surroundings.