Hi there,
I'm Sarah.
The where and who part...
I was born in Cape Town, South Africa, raised for the most part in Namibia, and moved permanently to Michigan in the US when I was 18. I did the whole "pick a husband, buy a house, get a dog" schtick in my early twenties (all of which worked out very well for me - thank goodness!) and later on became a mom - twice by accident and once on purpose.
The bit about why...
I've been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil, but painting with watercolors was something I only discovered in my late twenties, and my other mediums (like working with rocks, digital art, and ceramics) were somewhat recent discoveries. In fact, while I admit I made every effort not to ever be anyone's mother, in the end it was having kids that shaped and influenced many of the subjects I choose, and even some of the mediums I work in. (I took my kids to the beach, and that's where we discovered all those beautiful rocks we started collecting. And the only reason I started telling children's stories, is because I had children to tell them to.)
Stuff about the stories...
I've always loved making pictures, and I've always enjoyed telling stories. My mum says my earliest stories were just collections of drawings that I showed people while I told them the accompanying tale. As soon as I learned to write, the words followed the pictures until they finally overtook them and shouldered them out of the way. It wasn't until my daughters were born that I started drawing and painting pictures to go along with the stories again. And I'm so glad - because it's my favorite part!
And finally, the art part...
I work in a variety of different mediums and love to experiment with new ones when I get a chance, but the subjects of my work are pretty constant - nature and people. My father is a geographer and a devoted outdoorsman whose always loved wildlife and nature with a passion. He passed that on to his all of his daughters in one form or another, and it's probably why trees and flowers crop up in my art so often. My mum, on the other hand, is a people person who finds every person she meets fascinating. She taught us early in life to value relationships and treasure people, which may be why I enjoy painting portraits so much and capturing the everyday moments of life in beach pebble pictures.