What is your training?

I grew up loving to draw, I was attracted to art at a really young age.  I received a BFA from Eastern New Mexico and then an MFA from James Madison University.

I’m inspired by formal abstract expressionist painting and mark making but also children’s book illustrations, comics, graffiti, signs.  I’m interested in repetition and building a personal visual vocabulary of shapes and forms.  I believe we all have a shared collective visual vocabulary as well, and this is where the interest in signs, comics, illustration, etc. comes in.

Favorite piece?

 ‘Pink Table & Ghost’, 50″x60″, mixed media on canvas, 2014.  This is a very ‘quiet’ painting for me.  I love how peaceful it is, it took a long time to resolve and thinking of all the layers and shapes that are sliding secretly around underneath all the white makes it feel mysterious too.

How has your area influenced your work?

I live in Charlottesville, VA and there is a wonderful population of artists here, collaborative and so creative.  Charlottesville also has a very sophisticated, open and engaged audience.  It’s energetic…a great situation for any artist!

What is your favorite restaurant in your city?

C&O 

Favorite cocktail?

Actually, C&O has an amazing, cozy bar and my favorite drink there is a Greyhound with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.  Except for I order it with tequila!

How do you balance personal life and work?

It’s difficult.  It comes down to hours in the day.  Studio time isn’t relaxing, thinking time, it’s about getting work done, any work.  Not waiting to be inspired or for a great idea, but just doing something.  Even if it doesn’t come to fruition that day, you’ll have moved forward and that’s what’s important. 

Inevitably personal life and work bleed into one another and that’s actually an advantage.  For me these things are vital to one another.  But that doesn’t make it easier to get things done!

Dream trip?

Watching the Northern Lights from one of those geothermal, mineral pools in Iceland.

Dream commission?

I’d love to illustrate a children’s picture book someday.

Fave host/hostess gift to give?

An orchid or a bottle of red wine

Who is your style icon?

Diana Ross in this photo right here…it’s everything.

Your favorite up and coming artist?

Cate West Zahl is a fabulous painter.  Her work is very, very beautiful but it goes a lot deeper than that for me.  There is a rough, raw energy and sense of fluid movement that keeps you looking again and again.  Her paintings have these simmering undercurrents that crack through the surface in this lovely, wild way.

Most treasured possession?

My coffee maker

What are you reading?

The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit

Listening to?

Shovels & Rope,

Justin Timberlake

Favorite blogs/publications?

https://whatshouldwecallme.tumblr.com/

https://drunkjcrew.tumblr.com/

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Get social with Sarah on Instagram and see much more of her portfolio HERE.