Sarah begins a painting by focusing on elements of an object or image from her surroundings: a color, texture, pattern, or atmospheric quality. As a textile major at Rhode Island School of Design, Sarah became fascinated by the challenges presented in the medium. Textiles often require an artist to pare down her use of color and pattern and, in Sarah’s case, starting with her own drawing or painting and determining how to translate it into a woven design. Today, her process is greatly inspired by her training in both fine art and textile design. While the finished piece embodies a sense of the organic, her technique combines a deliberate methodology along with improvisational application of the paint. Sarah’s palette is often reduced to four or five color families, much like a textile, but with variations within each hue. One will also notice that the paintings offer the impression of depth which Sarah accomplishes by layering multiple application techniques.