Uneasy sitting

Is Sam Lyman experiencing any discomfort, as her sculpture of the same name (pictured), with shocking-white triangular shards of plaster shooting up from the seat of an overworn vintage wooden chair might suggest?

“Oh, totally,” the young artist said. “I’m 23, I’m still in Sacramento, most of my friends have moved on to other things. … It’s a little uncomfortable.”

Lyman, whose father runs Fe Gallery and does metalwork there, has recently ventured away from her standby medium of acrylic painting into the world of sculpture.

“It’s fair to say I’ve been inspired by my dad. It kind of boggles my mind [what he creates],” Lyman said.

With a cache of old, weathered furniture and appliances to choose from, thanks to her parents inheriting the collection of a hoarder whose home they purchased, Lyman said she “was like a kid in a candy store” selecting objects to build her sculptures with.

Lyman plans on transferring to art school in Chicago “in a year or two,” but for now, she’s pairing beat-up objects with repetitive plaster spikes in a way that is not so uncomfortable for the viewer to observe.