About the Artist
photo by Lisa
Ralphe
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Sarah Willman Grote is an award-winning artist. She has shown in numerous exhibits and her paintings are held in private collections across the country as well as in France and Germany. She describes her work and a little history as follows:
When I paint abstract works, I paint intuitively, I do not begin a piece with a pre-conceived notion of a composition. Rather, I begin painting and try my best to follow the path of the composition as it unfolds. The landscape paintings are my interpretation of the essence of the places I have visited.
I'd like to share a quote by John Held, Jr. that is especially relevant to the journey of all artists but can be relevant to any journey in life: "Don't ever begin to believe that when you get to a certain point, you're there. Don't ever put a limit to what you want to be, because when you get to that place, you're nowhere. Don't ever set yourself a stopping place, because maybe that is just the beginning."
I was born in the Mid-West. I always knew I was an artist. As a very young child, I loved to draw and paint, and this was my identity while growing up. Although I studied art in college, I graduated with business degrees, but unlike most of my business classmates, I headed to West Africa. For three years, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon and, to date, have been waiting for another experience to be as meaningful. I believe my homecoming as an artist may be the closest I'll come.
Following a period of time in international development work, I moved to the West in 1991. After a fifteen year hiatus, I began to study art again. The featured paintings are all about my relationships with souls and places that I have loved and not loved, encountered, embraced, run from, or observed. They are also about the "beyond" - the unknown and the unknowable. I am now again in the East and continuing to explore the eastern landscapes as well as the landscapes of my mind.
I would encourage any artistic spirit to eventually find a way back to what he or she loves, which is what I did, because it is the only way to be whole, and it is where each of us belongs. -
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