Welcome dear friend

My work explores the relationship between grace and courage.

I started watercoloring tendril-like DNA strand “strings” in the mid-2000’s as a self soothing practice. By the 2010’s I was weaving these shapes into the hair of my feminine figure paintings. I learned how to express and evoke intense emotion with hair…as it can feel like the wind streaming through and around you. Whimsical threads of hair can make you feel hopefully buoyant just as languid strands can be a visual for the grief healing process.

The power of the wind is invisible until it blows through something…and when you see it, you can sense both delicateness and resilience.

Years ago, I started running in the forest nearby to epic symphonic battle music. As my mind worked through many things, I began to imagine warrior angels lending me their strength especially by the time the Pandemic hit.

This active meditation was the seed of many of my paintings. I knew they would be graceful, and shimmer —but they would also be unapologetically fierce. I wanted them to feel refined but unafraid to feel raw all at once. 

I am drawn to the inward process of creating figurative art to express emotions my body did not feel safe expressing in real life for many years. My mind, my heart, my entire Soul…were all afraid to share. For a very long time. 

To break free from that, and learn to live in my body as mine, whole and complete, worthy and loved is what my artwork is truly about.

I love to write too, this is one of my favorites...my Mom called them my "prose":
---

The deepest of waters

Know how to drown you

The highest of mountains

Know how to awaken you 

The softest of fields 

Know how to comfort you

The hottest of bonfires

Know how to ignite you

The gentlest breezes 

Know how to sweeten you

But it’s the scenery inside you

That knows how to free you 

Written in 2021

---

I have been painting for over 20 years and my background is in Graphic Design, Art Therapy & Shamanic Healing. I am heavily influenced by the way color, texture, and composition evoke emotions, and often ones we may not have a name for. I am a wife and mother of two in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. I grew up outside Memphis, Tennessee and I have also lived in Louisiana, Connecticut, and Chicago.

Thank you for your interest in my work and creative journey.

Always,

Sarah 🌹