On Friday, Feb. 23, the art department welcomed artist Sara Pedigo to Furman University with the opening of her exhibition, Apperceptions, in Thompson Gallery of Roe Art Building. In her opening presentation, Pedigo articulated the beauty and importance of light in her life and its valuable inspiration for her artwork.

“I am enthralled and preoccupied by light’s incredible power to transform my perception of objects, spaces and the human body,” she says in a statement. She describes life’s and light’s fleeting tendencies which create moving shadows and new colors. “The inherent beauty I see in these small interactions drives my artistic practice,” her statement says.

In her presentation, Pedigo described her fascination with light to members of the Furman community. “It means so much to me,” she said. “It is transformative of every day of my life. It makes me deeply grateful to be alive and connected.”

Pedigo described her eye for light in her painting “Light Slips Down,” which depicts the view from her backyard. The oil on panel piece illustrates an evening skyline containing clouds, trees and powerlines. “I moved to a house that overlooks powerlines,” she said. “I find it so beautiful and cool how they hit the sky, intersect and shape.”

All of the artwork in Apperceptions comes from everyday scenes Pedigo has captured from her home, with paintings ranging from light hitting a scene of dishes in a cupboard in “Saturday Evening,” to the morning light hitting her home’s entryway in “Windows Filling,” and the lamp in her bedroom at night in “Sentiments Tangled.”

Pedigo also took time to talk about her artistic process. “I’m a deep painting nerd,” she said with a laugh and added that she usually has multiple paintings going at once during different times of the day to capture different elements of light.

She described the importance of painting over capturing a moment of light in photography. “If you take a photo you don’t get the same amount of information as if you’re sitting,” Pedigo said. “The act of standing and trying to make sense of the painting is more rewarding than the end result.”

Pedigo spent a portion of her childhood in Chester, South Carolina, before moving to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. and then attending Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida. She received her Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 2007. She is now back at her undergraduate alma mater where she currently serves as an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art and Design at Flagler College. Pedigo’s work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions. In 2006, she was included in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Masters of Fine Arts Grant. Her artwork has also been the cover art for numerous publications such as Minetta Review: a literary and arts publication at New York University.

Pedigo’s exhibition will run through March 23 in Thompson Gallery of Roe Art Building. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. through 5 p.m. For more information about Pedigo, visit her website http://www.sarapedigo.com/.