GET TO KNOW ME
Hello!
I'm Sarabeth, an artist, Air Force veteran, and new mother. My greatest wish for myself is to communicate beauty. Growing up in various countries thanks to my father's Naval career, European oil paintings of bull fights and sunsets left quite an impression on my young eyes. Online videos were my method of learning drawing basics as a child. At 14, I displayed my first acrylic painting, "Sad Gazer by a Tree 1" in a Pensacola, FL coffee shop. During 2010, I studied oil painting basics in a San Antonio studio, resulting in my favorite monochromatic still life, "Green Still." My fine arts education continued in Florida, while I focused sacred and religious studies. During this three year period, my favorite medium was conté and calligraphy.
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Following my father's military path, I served in the U.S. Air Force and continued to travel for work. I studied foreign language at the Defense Language Institute and earned an Associates of Business Administration from the Community College of the Air Force. In the last month of my enlistment, I was accepted into the Maryland Institute College of Art. I studied painting at MICA for two years. Following an serious traffic accident, I finished my bachelors at Mount St. Mary's University.
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ARTIST STATEMENT
Visual communication has empowered me to work through life in passionate and sometimes precarious moments . In 2009, an iteration of my first series, "Sad Gazer by a Tree," was displayed in a Florida coffee shop called World Cup. The feedback I received validated my desire to share the ugly side of life. My individual works and series that followed have addressed themes often too uncomfortable for verbal conversation. The chosen subject matter reflects deep emotional concepts and barriers.
Typically using oils on canvas, my work portrays and addresses loss and grief of many kinds. Playing with limited palettes and simplified shapes, works such as "Self Portrait: Anxiety" lead the viewer through a series of questions about loss. Ultimately, I offer the viewer a portrait of a journey with hardship hoping to create a space for discussion.
Holistically, I am a creative who draws influence from interdisciplinary and varied processes, projects, and interests, including: furniture restoration, home renovation, project management, floral design, sculpture, textiles, graphic design, and performative art. From 2012-2016, floral design and event coordination developed my understanding of art in relation to the body. Beach weddings in particular offered many opportunities to create three dimensional art that was intended to surround and interact, such as arches and pergolas made from wire, oasis foam and Baby’s Breath flowers.
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As I continued to use these skills, I worked with small businesses for package design and branding. COVID-19 and a near fatal car accident then changed how and what type of art I was producing, which led me to work again three dimensionally and performatively. My work continues to evolve as I aim to create visual connections. So often the ugly side of life cannot be spoken, for social reasons or for a lack of lexicon. These ugly sides have been both substantial and instrumental in my life. Oftentimes, the main distress was the isolation of the matter. It is my deep desire to speak visually on what cannot be shared verbally. I look forward to creating connections for people and acknowledge that ugly side.
CLIENTS & INSTITUTIONS
Anno Domini Flowers
Tim's Chimney Sweep
Cedarhurst Center For the Arts
Delaplaine Arts Center
Martinsburg VA Healing Arts Center
Mount Echo Newspaper
PRIVATE & GROUP INSTRUCTION
Artworks Classes, Bethesda MD
Maker's Space at Mount St. Mary's University, Emmitsburg MD
CONTACT
Email:
sarabethqart@gmail.com
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