Sky Patterson was born in 1978 in San Antonio, Texas to architect Dow Patterson and textile artist/writer Becky Patterson. He graduated from Churchill high school in 1996 and was an art major at San Antonio College. In 2000, upon seeing Sky’s work, renowned Native American Indian artist Fritz Scholder, asked to be Sky’s mentor. Scholder said, “not only does Sky have a lot of talent – the way he pushes paint around on the canvas – but for a young man he has more feeling and passion than most older adults. He is quite remarkable. He is original and has what it takes to be a great fine artist.” Sky and Fritz continued mentor/friends until Scholder’s death in 2005. Scholder owned eight of Sky’s paintings. Besides Scholder, Sky is inspired by the works of other figurative artists like Nathan Oliveira, Francis Bacon and Richard Diebenkorn.

In an article “Paintings blend heroism, uncertainty”, written about Sky by Wayne Slater in the January 2004 Dallas Morning News, Slater quotes Sky as saying, “When we see the swimmer image we see ourselves or everyone can see something different. They are faceless, anonymous, timeless; could exist in an after life.”

In his swimmer series, Slater says Sky has sought to reconcile both the silence and power of the transcendent movement – the animal force of a dive or a moment of introspection. Sky tells him, “Even though these swimmers have well-toned young heroic bodies there’s still an element of doubt and uncertainty. Their humble crouching and bowing stances reveal our fragility, vulnerability, and our efforts to be civilized. The painted image and I share a silent bond of thought and struggle in a desolate habitat. The subject is mysteriously isolated in time and space. The figures stand alone with nothing that might provide them with security.” In whatever Patterson paints, the underlying common denominator is the human condition. “We as humans are always drawn back to the figure because it is what we are most familiar with and curious in”, says Patterson. “I approach the human form in the manor of anonymous portraiture. By suppressing the facial features, their figurative gesture is what defines them. Although a narrative my be implied, I do not believe in storytelling. I want the work to engage the viewer’s own experiences and emotions.

In October of 2003, Sky was granted an artist-in-residence scholarship for six weeks at the prestigious Robert M. MacNamara Foundation in Westport Island Maine. He was the youngest to ever be accepted from the twenty-eight they choose per year. In 2007 he was invited to return. In 2004 September issue of Southwest Art, Sky was included in the annual, “21 under 31, a new generation of emerging Western American artists.” Most recently he has been named the 2008 “Artist of the Year” by the San Antonio Art League Museum. Sky lives on his great grandfathers historic ranch in Comfort, Texas where he paints in his studio. He has currently finished painting a body of work inspired from the Iraq conflict and 911, which reveals universal contrasts of war/destruction verses love/tenderness dichotomy; human degradation verses dignity; and violence verses beauty/poetry.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My inspiration has always come from the human figure and the human condition.  We live in a world of uncertainty and fears, and inhumane acts are fueled by misunderstandings between cultures. 

Bombarding images of chaos blaze the screen as we watch the Iraq War on TV.  Fanatical religion and its motives for suicide bombers to shed the blood of others as well as themselves (like the reward of 72 virgins in heaven) becomes a centerpiece of thought in my work.  The ideas of sexual pleasure in paradise used as incentives for violence, compels me to this illusive muse.  My empathy and lack of understanding becomes a point of inspiration to produce this series.
 
My theme however is not political or religious.  I do not feel like I am an American painting Islamic subject matter, but rather a human being painting a human subject matter.  The common denominator is that we are all fragile, vulnerable, and temporary. 

In my works on paper, I want to depict the ever-classic female figure and all its mystery, abuse, adoration, disregard.  The feminine form is also a source of nurturing and life.  The figure here is not the beautiful curvaceous nude, but one that is shapeless, shrouded in anonymity.  The black-holed faces are like vacuous “thumbprints”, lacking individuality.  Hooded and veiled, these women are voiceless.  Armless, they are helpless and vulnerable.  Despite the implied narrative of multiple entities, these existential figures stand alone, desolate, with nothing to provide them with security.  They are evidence of a dimming globe, where our uncertainty is our certainty. 
           
The female figure dominates the series yet it is not necessarily about women.  I use their icon for other primal themes such as war, religion, sex, death and fears that drive us all as humans.  I want the work to create and reveal paradoxes: the dichotomies of
-war and innocence
-violence and tenderness
-degradation and dignity
-isolation and multitudes
-death and love through grief
They find a place to exist, side by side.  The paradoxes remind us that if we look, there can be ugliness where there is beauty and beauty where there is ugliness.

                                                                                   - Sky Patterson