Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah John.
Hi Sarah, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Growing up, I was always interested in drawing and other activities that allowed me to explore creativity. Throughout middle and high school, I found a big interest in creating videos and editing them with my friends. We would plan all sorts of things for our videos and make custom backdrops with paper, and experiment with all sorts of editing techniques. This lead me to study film in college, though I realized one of my required class of art history sparked my interest a little more than learning about film. I took some time to reassess what I wanted to get out of my education and decided to take a sculpture class at Mesa community college while I was figuring things out. Little did I know the sculpture class was just what I was looking for. So, I continued at Mesa working my way through every studio art class I could while simultaneously working at a restaurant. After a few years of art classes and working, COVID shut down everything, and I was stuck at home without work. I took it upon myself to use that time to focus on my artwork and posting it to social media. I established a style of my own that was getting good feedback. This is when started to take my journey as an artist very seriously and couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. I soon started applying to art shows and markets and was on my way to making more sales than to just my friends. My first big art show was the La Jolla Art & Wine Festival in 2021, where I grew so much confidence in my work. I have dedicated almost every day to doing something creative since then and have exhibited my work in more markets, restaurants, and festivals. My journey as an artist is growing every year, and I cannot wait to see what comes next!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have defiantly been struggles getting my artwork exposed to the right audiences. I have attended a few markets with no sales at all and am still figuring out the right places to display my art. I have learned that sales aren’t everything, and often times connecting with the right people can help my business expand as well. Another struggle that I feel I will always have with my work is finding the right value for it. Pricing can be very difficult for artworks because sometimes it all just flows out very quickly, while other paintings take much longer to figure out how to get them just right. I never seems like it will be a smooth road; there are always new obstacles I’m going through every day but figuring them out just makes me much more confident in the path I’m taking!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I mainly focus on acrylic paintings, known for my bold and bright color schemes. I’ve always loved colors and how they can evoke certain emotions. A lot of my inspiration comes from nature and movement. Most authentic actions and substances, such as plants and how the wind moves things, usually are imperfect, so I don’t focus too much on trying to make things perfect in my works. I don’t keep myself to just painting; exploring other mediums is how my artwork keeps evolving. I am very proud of the style I have found for myself. It took a lot of practice to finally get to where I am with my work today. I believe I have created a cohesive way of putting my paintings together; it’s almost like sorting together the pieces of a puzzle for me. I have a certain formula I typically follow while painting, but I let my intuitions take over and almost never follow what I was planning in the beginning. I think what sets me apart from other artist is the way I look at things with as many perspectives as I can and push the boundaries into incorporating all of them into something harmonic. I appreciate artist who practice realism, but my work is trying to make the real world seem a little bit more fun.
How do you define success?
I think success is as simple as being able to call myself an artist while feeling proud and confident saying it. In the beginning, I felt a little bit of a fraud telling people I was an artist for a living, but with all the positive responses to my work and events I have done, I now truly feel like an artist. I am so excited to be sharing my perception of the world with people and having them enjoy it. I still have a lot of goals to reach in my career, but I already feel that I have achieved success by being able to make my passion into a living.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sarahjohnart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah.john.art/
Image Credits
La Jolla Light
