We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah Bargerstock. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.

Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Recently, I had the opportunity to pursue a year-long creative project that culminated with my first solo art exhibition, “Reminiscence and Ruin.” As an emerging artist, this project has been extremely insightful and meaningful to both me personally and to my career. The project involved the creation and exhibition of a cohesive body of work that includes four oil paintings and three mixed media drawings, as well as subsequent research around the work and my artmaking process.

The work consists of surreal, visual narratives that revisit, recontextualize, and retranscribe my memories as a woman who grew up in, and currently lives in, southern Appalachia. The stories are a result of a highly individualized and personal process of remembrance and reminiscence that is filtered through a whimsical and dream-like lens. These narratives are external accounts of my life for the viewer to connect with, as they are visually ambiguous and open to interpretation and continuation. My goal is not to convey my past plainly, but to revisit and contemplate moments long gone with a recognition for the fragility of memory and the human psyche.

My work is also figurative and self-referential, using the symbolic and fantastical relationships between the women and their surrounding objects and nature as a vehicle for emotion, connection, and understanding. The paintings and drawings serve as a form of emotional release from an unreconciled and guarded past that I wish to honor and understand further through my process of artmaking. They narrate what was never finished, what went unsaid and unseen, and what has yet to be discovered.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Sarah Bargerstock, and I’m originally from Chattanooga, TN. I currently reside in Johnson City, TN as I am finishing my last undergraduate semester studying studio art and art history at East Tennessee State University. From the first moment that I could hold a crayon, I have drawn and never stopped. Art has been my one true passion throughout life that has never faltered, as it quickly became my solace and relief from the noise of everyday life. Throughout my adolescence and into college, I eventually settled into painting and drawing as my primary mediums, and I developed a deep love for the two disciplines.

As for the content of my work, ever since a very young age I have always been fascinated with people-watching. Being a relatively shy person for many years of my life, I became intensely observational; I marveled at how others walked, how they talked, how they dressed. I would even play games in my head, trying to come up with complex backstories for the strangers I encountered. By creating these fictive universes, I was able to view life through my own distinctive and fantastical lens that I still carry with me today through my artwork. The visual narratives that I create draw inspiration from these daydreams, combining the surreal and whimsical elements of my childhood imagination with my present-day artistic influences and interests.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

As a visual storyteller, the most rewarding aspect of artmaking is the connections that are formed with the audience through my work. The surface of my paintings and drawings becomes a space of vulnerability and emotional openness that ultimately creates a relationship between myself, the narrator, and the viewer. This relationship allows the viewer to enter the world of my memories and the emotions held within them, feeling for themselves the sorrow, nostalgia, or confusion of my past as they “read” the artwork. There is a transportation from my internal consciousness outward to the external surface of the canvas or paper, and then back into the internal psyche of the viewer. This connection is so wonderful to watch, and I got to see it happen in real time during the opening reception of my show. It was a beautiful moment to see.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had known just how many resources there are for artists and art communities. There are so many arts organizations that have digital databases of upcoming and current exhibitions and opportunities, such as LOCATE Arts in Tennessee. Scrolling through Instagram alone has also informed me of countless open-call exhibitions and has provided me with great networking opportunities across the Southeastern U.S. The internet is a great tool for building your platform as an artist. Additionally, your peers are just as important! Surround yourself with artists and fellow creatives and engage in your local arts communities. Human connection is so vital and will only continue to fuel your creativity and skill.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahbargerstock.art/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Sarah-Bargerstock-Art/100095663790752/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-bargerstock