Sarah sits opposite me in her Girvan workshop, surrounded by art. She has pieces from vintage magazines, canvas, paper, plus the usual eclectic artists mix. There is a vibrancy running through it all, even the darker pieces. All soaked in a visual energy of a life of diversity, small intrigue, curiosity. No surprise as its from someone who has created art on canvas, fabrics, and also, cadavers. Graduating from Loughborough University in textiles, success came early, in London and America. Both a long way from Carrick and the quiet artist paradise of South Ayrshire. Lets go.
“We put a show on at the Mall Gallery in London, where the industry is pretty much based. Which was good fun. Somebody liked my work and wanted to interview me. I was pregnant at the time and unfortunately went into labour and couldn’t make it. I got a job back at the university and was able to enter competitions and shows. Through that I sold a piece and got an agent in America.
I was designing lots of loud shirts for men’s fashion. At Uni we were taught to keep meticulous notes on how we made certain colours and quantities. What dye mixed with what other dye and I hated that. I just wanted to mix the colour up and just go paint it on fabric. Thankfully with the work I was doing we didn’t have to draw in repeat. A big full size repeat pattern was beyond me. That’s not my strong point, too rigid. [In the work I was doing] I got a lot of freedom, general ideas and a colour palette. That’s what they were looking for.
I had a studio at home, the kids were at school, I’d work [and] get a collection together and send them off to America. You never get over the thrill of selling something, one month I sold eight designs. So thrilled, but you could never rely on the income, so I ended up getting a job with the Interior Designers based at the end of the road because I loved pretty things and fabrics and things like that. I was surrounded by gorgeous fabrics, wallpaper and things like that.”
This background is still present in her work, but it’s a far cry being immersed in that glamour from her early influences. The office of graphic designer from her childhood and a Uni trip to Prague, came some lasting influences. Looking around that beautiful city Sarah was drawn to graffiti covered walls, doors, decay and text surrounding her. She has looked locally and found similar inspiration in South Ayrshire and Carrick, but first back to Prague and that early inspiration.
“There were just layers and layers of leaflets, typography and flyers advertising all kinds of stuff, loads of different colours, historically painted and now flaking.
At the harbour at Ballantrae where those old boats are pulled up. I used to paint those old boats. They look really good. It’s the decaying falling apart things, that I absolutely love, you know, flaky paint, and rusty stuff. My kids just go you just like knackered stuff and I go yeah, I do. That’s why I like the kind of textures, layers and layers. The passing of time. In one exhibit I had eight pictures of those boats”
Currently her work incorporates these themes, and layers, using old magazines cut up and pasted. One piece includes 1910’s to 1930’s clippings from Marie Claire, “representing women as the mainstay of the home and trying to make do”. It has a depth beyond the obvious layers. At the time of writing Sarah has a piece exhibited in the Custom Lane Gallery, Edinburgh. It incorporates a pot that represents a family heir loom passed down through the women in her family, an interest in its history and fascination for the women that have owned it.
“It’s an exhibition called Holding Conversations and it’s mainly 3D exhibits, pottery. Which I will probably have to tie my hands behind my back when I go to stop me picking things up. I am very tactile and I am very, very clumsy, not a good combination. In my family I’m the fourth one to have it [the pots]. These pots, I have a pair of them, have survived four generations of women. My great grandmother down to me. They have loved it enough to mend it and fix all the cracks still show, but I like that. Who knows they might have got damaged in the blitz. The fact that these things are passed down, they last longer than we do. You’re just the guardian of things in passing. The fact that they go back so far, you wonder what they have witnessed being sat on the mantel piece.”
The creative process can be an homogenous process. One that can be a creation of its own. Sarah lets us in to hers, it is very honest, robustly methodical, and inspiring.
“I do a lot of writing in my sketchbooks as well as the drawing. Again, that helps focus your ideas, and I think sometimes you need to write down what it is that you’re noticing what you like about something. You need to analyse why you like something. What it is that appeals. You can’t just stand in front of something and go, yeah I like that. You’ve got to know the what, the why. What is it that appeals. It’s a lot, it’s very subjective, and it’s a conversation that you have with a thing. I think you feel it [and] when something really appeals and will draw you in, and you never know what that might be.
I love it when people buy something because they love it and you know it appeals to them whatever it might be. I have sold some of my more abstract pieces, so I know there’s people out there that will buy it. I just have to have the courage of my convictions. It’s scary that fear is, I take what I do in art extremely personally. To show anyone anything, I don’t want them to tell me what they think of me really. I want them to look at it and react, but at the same time, I don’t want to know.”
Finally, living in the Carrick area, the landscape cannot help but inspire and elevate the artist. What is it that Sarah what likes. Unsurprisingly its…….. “As you come over the hill from Lendalfoot, you’re right on top of the hill, and if the sun is going down and it’s sparkling on the water out there. It’s absolutely beautiful. I love that. Seeing the sea. Never get tired of it.”
Wonderful, what is your favourite part of Carrick? The ever present Ailsa Craig? The wild Doon Valley, or perhaps Rabbie Burn’s farming country?
What’s that? What about the cadaver? Well…….if I told you, I’d have to kill you! Then let Sarah the mortician do her work!