ARTIST STATEMENT

"Painting is how I know what I am thinking, feeling and where I am going. It is how I filter all that is in the world around me."

My earliest inspirations for painting come from the landscape and light on Cape Cod. I grew up surrounded by color fields of water, marsh, beach, and sky. As I sought out and found support to pursue painting, I also grew my visual vocabulary to process thoughts and emotions. Later, while in art school I was drawn to the artists Marc Rothko, Agnes Martin, late Monet, and the formalist painters of the 60's that challenged my visual imagination and led me to explore greater depth in painting.

I approach painting intuitively, mapping out ideas and inspirations into color fields, shapes, and marks. I spend time editing which enables opportunities for new direction, color relationships and maybe something unexpected and beautiful. Certain elements in this visual dialogue remain open and unresolved, so my process slows. A painting can take several months to complete and there are always some works that remain in conversation much longer. Patience, restraint, and risk carry equal weight in my process. My challenge is to remain open to all the possibilities that are happening with the materials.

Travel and seeking out art is an important part of my creative process for inspiration and challenge. Recently, the exhibition of late Monet and Joan Mitchell paintings in Paris at the Louis Vuitton Foundation has impressed on me my affinity to painters who use formal means in expressing their emotions. The paintings then become unnamed spaces for viewers to experience.

Simple forms of beauty can easily be overlooked in an ever changing and challenging world. Striving to make something beautiful out of my own vocabulary feels imperative.

Watch Brooklyn Navy Yard video on Sarah and designer John Milich.