Sweeney has engaged a continuous studio practice for four decades. Following his undergraduate work at SUNY Plattsburgh in sculpture and drawing, he earned a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut, followed a decade later by a Masters in Library and Information Science from Simmons University. Sweeney has worked in teaching, libraries and the arts. Early in his career, he found value in the crosspollination that occurs when engaged with parallel professions and disciplines. Sweeney’s paper art and prints are influenced by perspective gleaned from his time working in literacy, information and instructional roles over the years.

My paper works are woven from pre-printed papers (book pages, maps and other types of printed communication) that have been run through a shredder or sliced apart by hand.  I recombine them into patterns of text, color, image fragments and the over-under texture of the weaving method.  The process of weaving strengthens the paper and obscures the character of the source material. Each strip covers and reveals bits of content in the over-under process of weaving.

Printing new images over the woven pre-printed papers allows me to embed a combination of observed subjects and already existent culture. Though I layer my dry-point and linocut images over the weaving, I strive to keep the fragmentary patterns of overlapping paper visible, while suppressing readability in different parts of the print. My prints depict simple identities, events or activities. My intent is to allow woven vestiges of what came before (within the paper) to intrude on simple observed images. Their presence and the mark of what came before co-exist in a single visual moment - a reminder of all that informs a person’s understanding of a moment, an experience or another being.

“… [Sweeney] examines the ways in which we are daily confronted with information and messages of all kinds, and how we attempt to process and filter these messages in order to make sense of the world. His approach is expansive, full of exploration, curiosity and a refusal to be pinned down.” Correy Baldwin, Rag & Pulp, Uppercase Publishing, 2023