Be it in oils or acrylics she portraits those spaces that call her attention. I perceive her paintings as eternal vacations, always very tranquil and with so much light, it makes you smile to stand in front of the work of this girl raised in Virginia but who now has had a good bit of time living in Mexico City. – Maria Videl (thegardenandthecity.blogspot.com)
Every year hundreds of Mexicans are found dead in the desert trying to cross the Mex-US boarder. Living in Amercia is still of one of the bestseller dreams here. When I met Sarita aka Sarah, I was very intrigued, because she was doing the opposite. As an American she left her country to live in Mexico City and paint quietly urban lansdcapes from her appartment. I do like the concept of reversed-immigration.
– Yvan the Facehunter (facehunter.blogspot.com)
Sarah received a BA in Latin American studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and learned how to paint with oils for three months in Florence. There she picked up on painting place as a way to hone skills of observing how it is to see and quickly found a voice through painting her room and through her window (daily sights that brought her joy). Back in North Carolina she created Latino/a art education initiatives around the area to serve and learn from the ever-growing mostly Mexican population and she indoctrinated the young transmigrants into the school of room portraiture. Their vision prompted her move to Mexico City. The stint was so stimulating that instead of being stunned by the usual three sights a week there were about 20 a day that she was moved to paint. So she hauled paint boxes all over the city, met neighbors who never saw their building as something beautiful before but really loved their country.
Mexico City is so visually moving to Sarah because there is no design organization but rather the forms of everything- trees, houses, sidewalks, trash piles- tend to grow organically out of their functions. The practice of everyday life is merrily creating sublime color combinations and jaunty juxtapositions so all Sarah had to do was capture them in oils and cut-out paper. Besides the landscapes she paints the portraits of her home- a work that begins when Sarah moves and uses bricolage to build a temporary sanctuary of color and love and the sweetest detailed harmony for her to live in. Sarah also wrote there about the transmigrant aesthetic for the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico’s Anthropology Department.
Sarah’s boyfriend Josh Johnson, (Pinche Gringo) and her best friend Susie Simpson are two frequent collaborators. She sings with Pinche and when she is with Susie they make videos and end up orchestrating environments that Sarah paints and Susie writes about. The two sidekicks will help Sarah recreate her Mexico City at Found Gallery for the Spatial Reconstruction Project.
