far becomes near (ongoing)
Hart/Vargas (A collaboration between Sharon Lee Hart and Izel Vargas)
Our ongoing photo-based mixed media series, far becomes near, develops through a sustained visual exchange shaped by our distinct upbringings and our shared family life in Florida. Our geographic and cultural histories- one rooted in a Virginia suburb of DC, the other in South Texas near the US/Mexico border - inform our relationships to landscape, home, and belonging. Our visual vocabularies come together, forming a collaborative language that evokes memory, domesticity, and the super/natural world.
In our back-and-forth process, a piece moves between us for weeks or months without discussing it verbally, allowing the making itself to become a parallel dialogue. The series is constructed around our photographic scraps, tests, and unfinished pieces. Elements are cut, covered, ripped, and adhered, creating a push and pull - at times a challenge to the ego and an exercise in trust. Balancing intuition and intentionality, we transform remnants into compositions that feel both loose and refined. Each work represents a pause in our conversation, holding its own as a resolved moment while acknowledging that the potential to resume remains.